tartrates in wine

Is it Necessary for Wineries to Give Full Disclosure on their Labels?

Winemaking has come to be romanticized as simply grapes, barrels, and time. But, not surprisingly, there’s a little-more to it than that! There’s chemistry, microbiology, additives, smoothing out the rough edges, tweaking flavors, clarifying, deepening the color, and doing everything else to meet the expectations of the wine drinking public.. This gap between public perception and reality has sparked a bit of a debate in the winemaking industry, and inspired a very few bold wineries…

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A Guide to Wine Faults – Tartrate Crystals

  Tartrate Crystals [Tar-trate] I’ve worked in restaurants my whole life and have encountered tartrates quite a bit. Before a wine is bottled to be sold, wineries usually employ a procedure called cold stabilization (which brings the wine down to a near freezing temperature) in order to remove these “wine diamonds” as they’re sometimes more fondly called.  It’s worth noting that Potassium Bitartrate (to give tartrates their full name) is a natural byproduct of the…

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