Diamonds (and wine!) are a girl’s best friend, but who’s friend are those “diamonds” IN your wine?
You see them as sparkly purple bits on the end of a wine cork or as crusty bits coating the sides of an empty wine glass. They appear like coarse sugar crystals or even as shards of glass when you pour out that last bit of Chardonnay. While not exactly appetizing or appealing, these bits of sediment aren’t UN-friendly. In fact their appearance is a sign of wine as a natural product.
Whether purple stained, creamy colored or clear, these crystals are called tartrates or potassium bitartrates. In your kitchen you will recognize this as an ingredient from your baking cabinet known as cream of tartar! In fact, the cream of tartar you use to stabilize egg whites for meringue is also in the baking powder that you use to make your muffins rise, and it was probably created as a byproduct of someone’s winemaking efforts.
Tartaric acid is the dominant acid in grapes/ wine and in the presence of potassium (it too is natural in wine) and cool temperatures this “salt” or crystalline form is precipitated. Cold temperatures can also be utilized to prevent the tartrates from forming in your bottle. Winemakers will chill vats or containers of wine (especially white) in a process called “cold stabilization” in order to force the creation of the tartrates so that the crystals can be filtered out prior to bottling.
Winemakers will take the extra steps to cold stabilize their wines simply because the uninitiated wine drinker may become alarmed by the crystals at the bottom of his/her bottle or glass. No need for alarm or concern! They are completely harmless and natural and they won’t poison you or slice up your tongue!
What about filtering? Some winemakers brag that their wines are unfiltered and therefore better. More about whether this true next week.
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