Cold crashing

[Jezroti]

I’d like to reduce some acidity. Your answer gives me a better idea when to put the wine outside in upstate NY. Rather than lugging a five gallon carboy up and down steps, I plan to break it down into gallon jugs with screw caps and place them on the back deck. Probably best to wait until November for more consistent temperatures.

I would recommend leaving them undisturbed. Splitting into separate gallon containers will allow extra unnecessary oxygen exposure. During aging you would want to keep this at a minimum. Unless your wine is showing reductive qualities, racking should be kept to a minimum.

I’d like to reduce some acidity. Your answer gives me a better idea when to put the wine outside in upstate NY. Rather than lugging a five gallon carboy up and down steps, I plan to break it down into gallon jugs with screw caps and place them on the back deck. Probably best to wait until November for more consistent temperatures.

 

[BarrelMonkey]

I'm curious if/what % of commercial wineries cold crash their whites?

Hmmmmm......

Cold stabilization, I would say close to 100%, and the traditional way to do this is by chilling to slightly below 0C for a week or more ('cold crash'). But there are some recent advances in cold stabilization with additives (notably KPA, potassium polyaspartate), which offer a potentially cheaper and more environmentally friendly option for commercial production.

 

[Jezroti]

When the wine is cold it has a great capacity to take in oxygen then when it is warm. I would allow it to get up to 50-60 degrees before racking it.

Supposedly once the crystals form, they don't easily dissolve. However, my habit is to rack the wine before it warms up.