Ruined chardonnay by storing too cold?

[JeffZ]

I finished a batch of chardonnay and it was perfectly clear. Put bottles in wine cooler in indoor storage room. In upstate NY, the outside temperatures got very cold and my storage room temperature dropped to just above freezing.

After one month - went to check. Wine did not freeze, probably around 38-40F. But some type of white crud formed. At first, looked like ice crystals - but after moving wine into living room - the crud remained. Not ice crystals.

I was meticulous and all bottles were properly sanitized, so don't think it was contaminated. Any ideas?? Thanks.

 

[sour_grapes]

No, you didn't ruin it. These are just tartrate crystals (AKA "wine diamonds").

See this thread: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f6/what-these-crystals-48303/

 

[mfzona]

You cold stabilized! Not a problem for taste, but if you don't like the looks you can pour them all back into a carboy and let the crystals settle to the bottom and rebottle.

 

[JeffZ]

thanks for the response

newbie learning every day. thanks guys. so concerning these tartaric acid crystals - what are my choices?

i can't leave it in the bottle - it looks bad and does float around - so not very appealing.

- can i filter out after opening a bottle.
- or better to pour all 28 bottles back into carboy and re-bottle? how long should i wait for it to settle down before rebottling?

again - thanks.

 

[cmason1957]

You should decant your wine into something else and the serve from that or ignore them and worry about your next batch. They are totally harmless, many commercial wines will develop the same thing.

 

[heatherd]

I have a couple wines that have dropped wine diamonds, but I just ignored them. I have decided they are within my acceptable quality range.

 

[Boatboy24]

In the future, you can store your unbottled wine at those cooler temps for a few weeks to get the crystals to drop out. Then proceed to bottling.

 

[salcoco]

check the taste. loss of tartaric will reduce acidity. wine may be flat tasting.