POLL: Diamonds of Wine?

[David M. Bueker]

Oliver is correct IMO that cold stabilization is a generally commercial decision. It is a technique used by mass-market and micro-sized producers.

This self-selected group of wine geeks fully understands that tartrate crystals are harmless, if occasionally somewhat annoying (like the last ounce of my eiswein that was more like full of beach sand...damned expensive beach sand). However there are many, including those who classify themselves as passionate wine lovers who have zero understanding of tartrate crystals and consider them some sort of scary flaw. The education of those less informed is essentially done on a case by case basis & will never reach critical mass - thus the continued "need" for cold stabilization.

I don't doubt at all that a commercial wine producer would cold stabilize just to eliminate tartaric crystals. However, the acidity of the wine is also being reduced. Maybe that is where the perceived quality issue comes into play. The producer is blindly reducing acidity to eliminate tartaric crystals from forming in the bottle later. A producer who cold stabilizes as a means to purposefully reduce acidity in a somewhat noninvasive manner, is doing so because that is what the wine needs for proper balance. Unfortunately, I don't know how you would know which producer was doing for which reason, because they wouldn't likely admit they were altering the chemistry of their wine just so people would not be confronted by tartaric crystals.

[David M. Bueker]

The producer is blindly reducing acidity to eliminate tartaric crystals from forming in the bottle later

I would reject the notion of "blindly" as most producers (even say the small German estates) know the acidity levels in their wines. It's not like they are taking a shot in the dark.

The producer is blindly reducing acidity to eliminate tartaric crystals from forming in the bottle later

I would reject the notion of "blindly" as most producers (even say the small German estates) know the acidity levels in their wines. It's not like they are taking a shot in the dark.

Agreed, I think the smaller quality producers will cold stabilize or not depending on whether they think that it will improve the wine by lowering the TA, not necessarily just to prevent crystal formation. So it's a winemaking decision based on desired outcome. The large industrial producers do it as a matter of course for marketing reasons.

John

Agreed, I think the smaller quality producers will cold stabilize or not depending on whether they think that it will improve the wine by lowering the TA, not necessarily just to prevent crystal formation. So it's a winemaking decision based on desired outcome. The large industrial producers do it as a matter of course for marketing reasons.

John

Exactly. That is my point. If a producer is going to cold stabilize just to eliminate tartaric crystals regardless of whether or not acidity needs to be lowered, that producer is "blindly" cold stabilizing because his reasoning has nothing to do with the wine's acidity. Even though he might know what the acidity is, he ignores it. If acidity is where it should be or even low, the producer still cold stabilizes because he wants there to be no tartaric crystals later on. Hence, the acidity is reduced and the producer has potentially sacrificed quality for the sake of eliminating tartaric crystals.

Agreed, I think the smaller quality producers will cold stabilize or not depending on whether they think that it will improve the wine by lowering the TA, not necessarily just to prevent crystal formation. So it's a winemaking decision based on desired outcome. The large industrial producers do it as a matter of course for marketing reasons.

John

Exactly. That is my point. If a producer is going to cold stabilize just to eliminate tartaric crystals regardless of whether or not acidity needs to be lowered, that producer is "blindly" cold stabilizing because his reasoning has nothing to do with the wine's acidity. Even though he might know what the acidity is, he ignores it. If acidity is where it should be or even low, the producer still cold stabilizes because he wants there to be no tartaric crystals later on. Hence, the acidity is reduced and the producer has potentially sacrificed quality for the sake of eliminating tartaric crystals.

Can't argue with that. You could even envision them even cold-stabilizing and then adding tartaric acid to get the TA back. (Which wouldn't have enough potassium then to drop out of solution.) That would be a horrible over-manipulation and a definite reduction in quality.

A winemaker might knowingly and willing increase TA (total acidity) on purpose prior to the start of alcoholic fermentation just to get pH to a desirable range. Cold stabilization performed at some time after alcoholic fermentation will then allow him/her to get the TA more in balance (and depending upon the pH at the start of cold stabilization it should not be affected as much). I don’t believe that the sole purpose of cold stabilization is to reduce the chances of “diamonds” forming in the wine at a later stage.

Salute

John wrote:
Can't argue with that. You could even envision them even cold-stabilizing and then adding tartaric acid to get the TA back. (Which wouldn't have enough potassium then to drop out of solution.) That would be a horrible over-manipulation and a definite reduction in quality.

IMHO the worst thing in this scenario (“blindly” cold stabilizing only to realize TA is not at “desirable numbers”, your pH is now way up there) just think of all the SO2 you have to add to this wine just to protect it.

Keep on doing those “bench trials” Jack R!

Salute