Do you still cold stabilize your red wine with good PH/TA?

geek · Jan 24, 2015

Just wondering....my fresh grapes production from this past fall had a great number with PH in the 3.5 and acidity within range.

I brought the carboys to the cold garage and they dropped lots of sediment, nice..!!

Just making sure that while maybe dropping those crystals that people talk about, it will keep my wine in balance.

This wine went through MLF.

All in all, cold stabilizing is good regardless?

Matty_Kay · Jan 24, 2015

Great question. Have been wondering if I should cs some Chilean reds from last year currently bulk aging to take advantage of the crappy weather here in the north east.

ColemanM · Jan 24, 2015

HA!! Way to make lemonade matty_kay!

Matty_Kay · Jan 24, 2015

Haha, it's the only way to get through the next 6 weeks or so. Come March 1, baseball spring training is in on, March Madness hoops and Chilean wine...all signs of spring in my eyes. .

Turock · Jan 25, 2015

There's really no exact formula to determine the ability to get accurate numbers as to where the PH will go because of buffering capacity. But generally, wines below 3.65 will fall and wines above 3.65 will rise in PH when cold stabilized. When you are above 3.65, the PH will rise or fall depending on how far away from 3.65 you are when you start.

Rocky · Jan 25, 2015

I am not advocating this but I do not cold stabilize any of my wine. Occasionally (and rarely), I have experience "wine diamonds" and I have no problem with them. BTW, I normally buy JIF Creamy, and I like JIF Crunchy just as well.

cmason1957 · Jan 25, 2015

derekjames100 said:
How do you guys think CS affects taste? Does it always soften it and change it?

I think you want a black and white answer to a really gray question. I cold stabilize to make certain I don't get wine diamonds. I think it usually makes things less tart, but not overly so. I always do it with wines made from fresh grapes, sometimes with wine kids, never with fruit wines.

Ask 10 winemakers about this get 11 opinions.

Turock · Jan 26, 2015

Cold stabilization's most common use is to reduce acid. And if you've used something like calcium carbonate pre-ferment to raise the PH, then there's no need for CS because the tartaric crystals will form and drop out at room temp.

You should really go by how a wine tastes and not get hung up by PH readings on red wines. I've never CS a red wine.

byrondahl · Feb 14, 2015

I never cold stabilize reds unless acids are way too high. Cold stabilization is mainly for whites for crystal formulation or haze when chilled. Since reds don't normally get chilled, no worries.

vacuumpumpman · Feb 14, 2015

I agree with cmason1957

Treeman · Feb 16, 2015

geek said:
Just wondering....my fresh grapes production from this past fall had a great number with PH in the 3.5 and acidity within range.......All in all, cold stabilizing is good regardless?

Hey Geek, need some more numbers....What are your pH, TA values now that you've stabilized? What is the varietal, and can you describe the taste?

geek · Feb 17, 2015

This was a Sangio/Cab Sav/Merlot 7-case blend (4/2/1).
PH was nice around 3.5x and my notes don't tell me the TA but remember was in the .7-.8 range I think.

Overall, I just wanted to know if folks still cold stabilize after MLF i the numbers are within good range.
I didn't check TA post MLF but think that PH was still in the 3.4-3.5.

Smells great but need to do a taste test after racking today.

.

Boatboy24 · Feb 17, 2015

Your pH is spot on, but TA is high. Go by taste.

ColemanM · May 3, 2015

Smells great but need to do a taste test after racking today

How did this end up geek?

geek · May 3, 2015

Still waiting its turn for the vadai barrel. I racked this week and it is coming along really nice..!!

Do you still cold stabilize your red wine with good PH/TA?

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