SO2 addition while aging wine and temperature

[nucjd]

Hey folks. Question to pose for y'all.

First a little background I have a small vineyard on my farm ( Chardonnay, merlot, mourvedre ) and I have made wine from kits as well as my own vines. I age my wines in my wine cellar which is a converted storm shelter in my basement that is concrete (20 wide 6 feet deep and 10 feet tall) and built into the hillside. The space is outfitted with a wine cellar cooling system and during the winter it sits about 45 to 50 degrees F and during the summer it rises to a peak of about 60 to 65 degrees F.

Now, I have been checking SO2 a lot more on my wines as I am using a barrel ( BTW it is just amazing and I am loving the results ) and I am consistently a little low in SO2 but have had no problems with long term storage or wine stability. I was wondering does the stable cool storage temps contribute to the stability and allow me to use less SO2 or am I dancing with the devil?

Here is a pic of the space as threads are more fun with pictures

 

[Runningwolf]

Awesome wine cellar. I don't think the climate plays much in the meta dissipating any like exposer to air and racking would.

 

[GreginND]

Well, the answer is yes and no. The cooler temperatures will certainly slow down (not necessarily stop) microbial activity. So, in that regard, it will help. But it doesn't really help in stopping oxidation. You should still maintain adequate SO2 levels.

 

[nucjd]

Thanks for the quick answers guys. I sort of figured that but I was curious if there were some folks that were using temperature more so than SO2. I added SO2 this past weekend as I really did not want to find out the hard way.

 

[Turock]

I agree. Always keep your SO2 levels at the proper amount. That is one awesome wine cellar--good job.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Beautiful wine cellar!
Something to keep in mind, the amount of free sulfite that remains in the wine after making an addition often falls short of the intended goal. This is a result of binding, which needs to be taken into account and corrected for or the wine risk not being protected in spite of making sulfur additions.
The Sulfite reacts to and becomes bound to aldehydes, acids, sugars, solids, yeast/bacteria, etc that are naturally found in wine.

 

[nucjd]

Thanks Pumpkinman. I think that has been one of my problems. I would add based on amount and once I was able to test I was realizing I was low. Luckily everything seems ok.

 

[Pumpkinman]

It appears that you have taken a proactive approach, this is the only way to have control of the wine in my opinion, I learned the hard way about sulfites and binding, I was able to save the wine, but it is so much easier to correct an issue before it becomes a problem.