Cold Stabilization

[Winehaus]

I was lucky enough to get 6ish gallons of some fresh Kansas grown Chardonnay this fall as a bonus. Its my first go at a white from grapes, I have done a few reds over the last couple years but preferred to let mother nature do its thing with those.

I have the chard in a carboy now and will rack it off the sediment in a few days. I want to try cold stabilization because with our climate here we get our fair share of acid in our grapes. The wine is pretty darn clear now.

I have been reading up here on it and have decided to put it in my unheated garage since our nights have been firmly around 30 degrees. I will use vodka in the airlock like suggested and wrap it up in blankets with a thermometer to monitor temp. On to the questions...

Should I rack it off the sediment first then immediately put it in the garage? Also, I keep reading differing opinions on whether to rack cold or wait for it to heat up, any pros or cons to both? What do most of you do?

 

[djrockinsteve]

Once my wines have cleared I will rack and add a pinch of sulfite then bulk age them in my cellar on the back side of the basement against an open wall (not underground). It gets decently cold down there with the heat vent closed but never freezing. I age my whites and fruits 6 months before racking again, reds a year. At this time I bring the carboys upstairs and allow them to acclimate to the warmer temps then vacuum rack off of the tartaric acid and any additional sediment that has fallen over the aging.

By allowing the wine to warm up you will be able to degas the wine as it is racked. Cold wine is difficult if not darn near impossible to degas.

Leaving the tartaric crystals in the carboy for months will not harm the wine and the acid will become hard like rock candy almost so you don't have to worry about transferring them when you rack.

At this time I add sorbate and back sweeten to our liking. Some folks will rack off of the crystals after a month or two but I see no advantage to exposing the wine an additional time to oxygen.

Clear your wine. Rack, add sulfite. Cold stabilize/age. Rack, back sweeten if you like then bottle.

I would be very cautious of those very cold temps as even though alcohol needs a lot to freeze it may expand in the carboy and break it.

 

[GreginND]

30 degrees is no problem. Actually it is better if you could get the wine to the mid 20's.

 

[fishonline]

I'm in WI where the temp is in the 20's in the day and much colder at night. I have had three carboy's in the garage for a month now with no freezing or problems. My garage is not heated but it may be a bit warmer since it's attached to my house. Crystals have dropped and I plan on bottling this weekend.

 

[robie]

If the Chard is also high acid (tart, malic acid), why don't you put it though malolactic fermentation (MLF), instead? The results will be much better (smoother) than CS.

 

[Winehaus]

If the Chard is also high acid (tart, malic acid), why don't you put it though malolactic fermentation (MLF), instead? The results will be much better (smoother) than CS.

I had thought about that but it's been in the carboy for about 5 months. Is this too long to go back and send it through malolactic? Also this is an unoaked chard and I heard from a wine distributor(he doesn't make wine so I wasn't sure how true it was) that going through malo will give it a slight buttery taste. Is this true? Because that is something I don't like in my Chardonnays which is why I went the unoaked route. I also want to go through CS because I know my boss puts a big emphasis on it for his whites(this Chardonnay juice included) because he will have a lot of tartrates in the whites that he doesn't CS long enough or cold enough.

 

[joea132]

If you decide to rack while it's cold, remember to leave room for expansion. Trust me on this one, it makes one heck of a mess. You can always add some back from a small container but it gets ugly when it goes through the airlock. Really ugly.

 

[Runningwolf]

If you decide to rack while it's cold, remember to leave room for expansion. Trust me on this one, it makes one heck of a mess. You can always add some back from a small container but it gets ugly when it goes through the airlock. Really ugly.

Joe you are so right. I always rack immediately after removing carboy from the freezer. After blowing bungs and wine out of the carboy several times, I'm getting pretty good at remembering to leave about a 375mm bottle out of the carboy I'm racking into.

 

[rwallick11785]

I had thought about that but it's been in the carboy for about 5 months. Is this too long to go back and send it through malolactic? Also this is an unoaked chard and I heard from a wine distributor(he doesn't make wine so I wasn't sure how true it was) that going through malo will give it a slight buttery taste. Is this true? Because that is something I don't like in my Chardonnays which is why I went the unoaked route. I also want to go through CS because I know my boss puts a big emphasis on it for his whites(this Chardonnay juice included) because he will have a lot of tartrates in the whites that he doesn't CS long enough or cold enough.

As far as malolactic is concerned, there are options available for ML bacteria that produce very little diacetyl (the compound responsible for that buttery taste in ML'd wines. It's also interestingly one of the major flavoring components in popcorn butter). I have not used ML on a white before but I know that morewinemaking.com has several great albeit slightly pricy options for ML strains. Since you've racked off your fine lees you will also want to get some ML nutrients. I've used opti malo for nutrient and acti ML for rehydration and my reds have finished ML in about 3 weeks.

 

[Carotz]

well after you press out that wine, it should be put in a warm room say a boiler room, the idea is to get the wine itself between 68 and 70 degrees and to maintain that temp until malo is completed,
thats how i was taught and if you research it you will find that info,.
anyway after malo has completed (i dont know if you use the old timer method by going by the moon or acuvin etc, anyway after that step has completed it is time for your first racking yayyyy.
some say a little splashing is fine but i prefer to treat it like a beautiful woman, take my time gently and then yes cold stabilize, i put mine in my insulated wine cellar (it gets cold enough) but you can put it in the garage and dont forget to add 1/4 teaspoon of so2 per 5 gal

 

[robie]

As far as malolactic is concerned, there are options available for ML bacteria that produce very little diacetyl (the compound responsible for that buttery taste in ML'd wines. It's also interestingly one of the major flavoring components in popcorn butter). I have not used ML on a white before but I know that morewinemaking.com has several great albeit slightly pricy options for ML strains. Since you've racked off your fine lees you will also want to get some ML nutrients. I've used opti malo for nutrient and acti ML for rehydration and my reds have finished ML in about 3 weeks.

Also, during alcohol fermentation, the sooner one starts MLF, the less buttery taste one will end up having. Alcohol fermentation tends to remove the diacetyl.

 

[Winehaus]

You have all convinced me to go through malo next fall/winter with my reds. Much of what your describing is what I have been wanting in my reds. I do have 6 gallons of St. Vincent/Rougeon and another 6 of Chambourcin from this fall that will have to go without. Will be fun to taste the difference between these and next years vintage.

As for my Chard, I haven't seen much change and it has been in the garage nearly 2 weeks. I fear the temp is too high as the thermometer seems to hover around 40 at all times. Will I need to let it sit longer or is the temp just too high?

 

[rwallick11785]

I've experienced that cold stabilization needs about 28-30 degrees to really pull out all of the tartrate it can. A bonus to cold stabilizing is also that it will lower pH a bit because it pulls some potassium out of solution when forming tartrate. This means you need less SO2 to protect your wine. On the flip, It does lead to a more crisp, less full wine or can since the potassium in you wine lessens the perception of acidity on the tounge. These are super subtle changes and probably more scientific than practical differences.

 

[rwallick11785]

That can make a difference in any changes you will make.

 

[robie]

You have all convinced me to go through malo next fall/winter with my reds. Much of what your describing is what I have been wanting in my reds. I do have 6 gallons of St. Vincent/Rougeon and another 6 of Chambourcin from this fall that will have to go without. Will be fun to taste the difference between these and next years vintage.

As for my Chard, I haven't seen much change and it has been in the garage nearly 2 weeks. I fear the temp is too high as the thermometer seems to hover around 40 at all times. Will I need to let it sit longer or is the temp just too high?

At that higher temperature, it will just take longer for the crystals to drop. In Olathe (I went to high school there many, many years ago), you should not have an issue with it getting cold enough, you just may have to wait a little longer. As long as the wine is air locked and protected with sulfites, it will be fine for as long as it will take. I would give it a full month at that temperature.

As it gets colder outside, make sure the wine temperature doesn't drop so low that it freezes.

By the way, you are the first person I know of who doesn't like a buttery version of Chardonnay. Nothing wrong with your feeling that way, though. The butteriness from an MLF is not quite the same as that from oak.

In most cases, butteriness in a red is considered not very desirable. For that reason, since you especially dislike the buttery flavor, for your reds next year, you should consider starting MLF early, right after pressing or before the SG gets below about 1.010.

Make sure all your specific varieties of grapes really will benefit from MLF. MLF is meant to reduce high levels of malic acid by converting it to CO2 and lactic acid. Even with Chardonnays, if the malic acid is not very high (as in the case for many cold climate Chardonnays), MLF is likely not needed. Otherwise, it can negatively affect the desirable acidity of the wine.

Also, I know your grapes are fresh and not from a kit, but for the benefit of others reading this, never do an MLF on a kit wine.

 

[Winehaus]

I must correct myself because I was lucky enough to try some Burgundy and other french Chardonnay that were soaked and I really did like most of theirs. Very subtle but the limestone taste really shined through. Being a horticulture major from Kansas, I'm sure you can guess why I loved that taste. I think it may be my lack of trying good Chardonnay because of my college budget among other things but they have all seemed over the top on oak.

I think our hot summers here help produce a lot of malic acid in the grapes. Just a guess from my inexperienced pallet tasting quite a few wines from the area as well as my own. Hopefully I will be able to do some tests and experimenting with that in the fall.