Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/59079
TIM P A T TERSON Inquiring Winemaker O Winemaking Comes In From the Cold Highlights h, those irritating, crunchy little crystals. They're called "wine diamonds," but they're about as wel- come as bird droppings. They're the potassium bi- tartrates that fall out of solution in wine at the least opportune moments—in the consumer's refrigerator, just before the gala dinner party. These little shards of cast-off acidity are, of course, odorless, tasteless and entirely harmless. Their sensory impact in the glass is much less significant than that of the sludge that can be found in older red wines—though oddly enough, unpleasant red muck gets treated as some kind of badge of honor. But because consumers apparently get quite freaked at the sight of tartrate deposits, winemakers go to a lot of trouble to get rid of them—not just in the white wines that routinely get chilled before drinking, but in millions of gallons of mass-market reds, which also often spend time in the fridge. • Several alternatives to traditional cold stabilization have emerged in recent years • Electrodialysis and combinations of membrane filtration and ion- removing resins offer precision and less energy consumption. • Mannoproteins derived from yeast cells can block tartrate crys- tal formation before it happens. WinesandVinesFeb2012_BWquarterpagead.pdf 1 1/8/12 7:50 PM TANKNET® THERMOSTATS operate stand-alone and network with NO NEW WIRES at the tank. C M Y CM MY CY CMY K 707 938-1300 WWW.ACROLON.COM 46 Wines & Vines APRiL 2012 ®