COLD STABILIZATION

NorthernWinos · Mar 23, 2008

The flavor is much smoother.....maybe we'll continue putting it outside for this week....Forecast...... highs 31-37*...lows 11-27*.....I don't like those 11* nights tho.

It shouldn't hurt to cold stabilize again would it????

NorthernWinos · Mar 30, 2008

Racked this wine again today...it had spent another week outside in fluctuating temperatures....20's to 40's....

Got more crystals out of it and the flavor had mellowed quite a bit....So...we let it warm up and then bottled it.

Will be interesting to see if it drops many more wine diamonds in the bottles.

SmokinDawg · Mar 30, 2008

I was reading this article, and wondered about cold stabilization at all:

So what exactly does it imply when we have visible wine diamonds in a bottle?<ul>[*]Among
other things, it tells you that this particular wine was produced from
grapes that were ripe and the grapes had sufficiently high acidity and
minerality for these crystals to form.[*]These crystals are neither harmful nor are they a sign of poor quality[/list]
We don't usually see these wine diamonds in New World, or North
American wines specifically, very often as many of these white wines
are "cold stabilized" today. Cold stabilization is a process whereby
the wine is rapidly cooled down to approximately -4C for up to 2 weeks
in order for these types of crystals to precipitate or "fall out" of
the wine before the wine is bottled. There is in fact much debate about
a process that basically brutalizes a wine in such a manner and the
change in taste and flavour which may occur as a result.

Be
that as it may, you should consider yourself lucky if you find some!
You are holding a bottle of wine that is most likely of superior
quality.

Jack on Rainy · Mar 31, 2008

NW,
Mary and I justracked and bottled an MM AJ Chiantiand found a heavy layer of diamonds in the bottom of the carboy, approximately 1/16" thick and covering the entire bottom. But, we were not intentionally cold stabilizing.During bulk aging the carboy was down as low as 50 with most of thetime at 55 for about two months so we were a little surprised by the diamonds. First kit we've seen with diamonds.

K&GB · Apr 14, 2008

I stored my carboys in the garage until March and had crystals form in both a WE Viognier and a Heron Bay Sauvignon Blanc. These were my first kits, and I had mistakenly added tartaric acid to these prior to fermentation.

Now I know better

The temps in the garageranged between 42-70 all winter. So I have a question about the 1-gal batches of fruit wine I've made since then.

1. Should I cold stabilize at all?
2. If so, my only option is to rack each jug (one at a time) into a 1-gal plastic applejuice jug and store it in my refrigerator for a few weeks. Is this a good idea?

Ken