Waiting to add SO2 so as to avoid cold stabilization....

[Vinoors]

Its freezing here in the northeast and my game plan was to transfer my wine this weekend and maintain the proper level of free SO2. However, with a ph of 3.88 and TA of 6g/L, I really want to avoid additional TA dropping out of the wine, which I think will happen in my basement given how cold it is. Any harm in waiting weeks or a month to rack and add SO2? The wine does not have the appropriate level of SO2, but I don't think spoilage would be an issue because its so cold. Only issue for the unprotected wine may be oxygenation, but if I never open the bungs and leave the airlocks filled- would this really be an issue?

 

[DoctorCAD]

No different than any other aging time, but you might want to give it a small sulfite dose now.

 

[salcoco]

better safe than sorry. a 1/4 tsp for 5 gallons would suffice

 

[NorCal]

I’d add SO2, don’t rack.

 

[Johny99]

As long as you don’t rack, the tartrates will reabsorb when the temperature goes up. I’d be safe and hit it with some meta, just in case as @NorCal says. It won’t hurt and won’t impact the TA.

 

[user 36973]

I'd keep up with the sulfites and not get into the containers otherwise. Maybe top off with inert gas to displace any oxygen that gets in there. At that low level of TA, I wouldn't expect a lot of tartrate precipitation anyway.

 

[cmason1957]

As long as you don’t rack, the tartrates will reabsorb when the temperature goes up. I’d be safe and hit it with some meta, just in case as @NorCal says. It won’t hurt and won’t impact the TA.

I don't agree that the tartrates will readsorb back into the wine. They are bound together now and some might go back into suspension, but the vast majority will not.

 

[user 36973]

I don't agree that the tartrates will readsorb back into the wine. They are bound together now and some might go back into suspension, but the vast majority will not.

Yep, it takes several minutes of a steady stream of 120deg hot water to dissolve the tartrates from my containers. Very few will naturally dissolve back into solution at room temperature.

 

[Johny99]

I don't agree that the tartrates will readsorb back into the wine. They are bound together now and some might go back into suspension, but the vast majority will not.

Yep, it takes several minutes of a steady stream of 120deg hot water to dissolve the tartrates from my containers. Very few will naturally dissolve back into solution at room temperature.

My references say otherwise. The cold stabilization is a function of saturation. Jackson, Wine Science: Principles and Application, gives the chemistry.

Most procedures call for racking when cold. I have tried racking after it warms up and then repeating cold stabilization and get more precipitation. I suppose it could have been incomplete, but when I’ve done trials after cold racking, I don’t get get additional precipitates. As for needing hot water and good scrubbing to remove the precipitates, remember it is a function of acid concentrations, so water is not the same solution they came out of solution from so the behavior is entirely different.

Give a trial a try and let me know if you have different results.

 

[Redbird1]

Go science!