Wine now a year old crystals appearing in bottom.

kirknotes · Oct 27, 2018

I started this batch last fall, fermented until SG was down to .998 let it age about 6 months in carboys - reracked 2 times in those 6 months. At that point the wine was clear and had nothing floating in it.

Next I back sweetened with local honey and bottled (added campden tabs to eliminate restarting the fermentation)

It has been about 3 months + and I opened one of my bottles - there is now a small amount of crystalized purple colored debris in the bottom of the bottle....is this from the honey or does anyone know what caused this?

FTC Wines · Oct 27, 2018

Sounds like wine diamonds to me. Did you chill the wine at anytime? If chilled the diamonds can form quickly. Just my 2 cents. Roy

stickman · Oct 27, 2018

Usually the crystals are tartrates that fall out over time, not normally a problem unless you object to the way they look, they don't affect the taste much, they represent the wine loosing a little acidity and becoming a bit softer over time. If you don't like the crystals, then chill-proofing the wine before bottling would help eliminate the crystals from forming in the bottle.

kirknotes · Oct 27, 2018

ok - good to know - the wine tasted very citrus fruity and acidic as I bottled it...so I was hoping it was going to mellow out with age - so these crystals seem like a good sign that it happening.

wxtrendsguy · Oct 28, 2018

I wouldn't worry about the tartrate crystals, I think the bigger worry you are going to have is exploding wine when those SO2 tablets bind up over time allowing fermentation to renew. If you are going to back sweeten a wine you have to sterile filter it or use a mixture of sorbate and SO2. I wouldn't let it age too long or get very warm or boom, literally you'll be cleaning up a mess.

mainshipfred · Oct 28, 2018

I agree with wxtrendsguy about the sorbate or filtering. The honey is going to ferment. What puzzles me is you mentioned the tartrate but no mention a sparkling wine. I recently added an ever so slight amount of sugar prior to bottling and had a fizzy wine. Had to open all the bottles let it sit for a while to finish fermenting and degas then re bottle.