Page 14 - Grapevine NovDec 2021

In The Winery

the above is determined by how each winemaker comes from a company that is aware of your use.
handles his or her wine and each factor should be The cream of tartar seed size needs to be small
considered. enough to make sure the crystals have the proper
surface for the seeding to be effective. The seed
Calcium Tartrate Stability Unaffected particle size is best at 35 micrometers. This will
give the fastest rate of precipitation and growth. A
The reader should keep in mind that the process mix between 30 and 140 micrometers will do fine
of cold stabilization in this manner does not neces- for this operation and is most likely the size mixture
sarily affect calcium tartrate stability and many of found commercially.
the lab tests to check stability will not measure this
form of instability either. One may re-use the seed from tank to tank using
on whites first and then on reds. If the seed is
Miscellaneous Pointers: used in conjunction with bentonite, after cold
stabilization has been achieved, then the seed
The winemaker must keep in mind that wines must be retired. This re-use of the seed may
blended after cold stabilization must be reestab- greatly drive down the cost of the seed per gallon
lished or at least checked to determine their stabili- as one moves it from tank to tank. [The author
ty. Two cold stable wines blended together will not has used one set of seed for over 40,000 gallons
always result in a cold stable wine and most often (8 – 5000 gallon tanks) of wine with success and
will reveal an unstable wine due to the chemistries has not experienced a failure of the process]
of each wine and their resulting blend. This may Cross-contamination is less of an issue at this time
even be true with same blends cold stabilized sep- because the wines are generally moving toward
arately. filtration and bottling in stainless steel tanks or
Make sure when purchasing the seed that it equivalent for sanitation purposes.
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