What is This White Stuff Floating in My Glass?

I love talking about wine. Those who know me can attest to the fact that I will ramble on ad nauseum about some bit of enological minutia that I'm the only one who gives a rat's ass about. Sometimes I catch myself dropping wine buzz words, seemingly with the assumption that everyone around me knows what I'm talking about. I had this experience the other day when I mentioned the tartrates floating around in a glass of Chardonnay.

When you start dropping words like "tartrates" into your every day conversation, you have to expect to have the room look at you like you've sprouted a second head. In moments like these I realize that I'm a huge wine nerd, and that I also have a problem with talking without thinking. Why would I think that the people in this gathering would have any idea what I am talking about? It also makes me realize that one of the things that I don't do often enough on this blog is educational posts. There is a lot of misinformation out there about wine, and sometimes a good thing can appear to be a bad thing to the average consumer. Tartrates and sediment floating in your wine glass is definitely an example of this.

 
Tartrates are the little crystals that you will occasionally find residing in your bottle of wine, and especially on the cork. They are most often found in white wines, as the cold conditions that produce the crystals are less likely to take place with a red wine. These crystals are created when tartaric acid and potassium combine. Both tartaric acid and potassium are natural parts of a wine, but the crystals produced by their union are generally removed through a process known as cold stabilization. Cold stabilization is one of the many methods used by winemakers to pound their wine into a product that is easier to sell. The wine is brought down to near freezing temperatures for a few days, which causes the crystals to form, then filtered to leave the crystals behind.

So what does this mean about my bottle of Chardonnay? It means that there was one less bit of manipulation perpetrated against this wine. The presence of tartrate crystals in a wine is not an indication of lower quality or flawed wine. In fact, these crystals are probably more common in higher quality wines that have not undergone many of the processes that you find in mass produced wines. Decanting can keep the crystals out of you and your guest's wine glasses, but the presence of the crystals is nothing to be concerned about.

So, next time you are serving a wine to your friends and someone says, "Ew! Something is floating in my glass!" Simply tell them that it is only tartrate crystals, and nothing to worry about. Just be aware that they will probably look at you like you have two heads.

Image taken from www.diwinetaste.com

Comments

[JFTxWino]

Totally agree with you Ben
I think the less manipulation done to a wine the better it will be. However now days there is so much that is done to make the wine "pretty" that it strips it of its character and flavors!
Red Caboose's 09 Viognier is the only Texas Viognier that I have found not filtered or cold stabilized. It has tartrates floating around in the bottle and I think its one of the best Texas Viogniers out there!
I was told that they did not cold stabilize it because they believe the tartrates impart flavor into the wine. I dont know if this is true or not but the wine is pretty darn good.
If you let an unstablizied wine lay on its side for a long enough period you can actually work those tartrates out of the wine with the first pour its kinda takes practice but who deals with allot of wines with sediment these days...
I have also heard that some of these wineries do Heat Stabilization. (I know sounds terrible)
I know Llano does this to some of their wines because many of the bottles are going on the shelves at grocery stores and convenience stores. And to protect them they have to be manipulated this way.
I really believe that wine is like food, it is always better when it is minimally processed!
Great Post Ben!

[Benito]

Funny anecdote about tartrate crystals... There's an urban legend that you can kill somebody by putting ground up glass in their food or drink, and then they'll die of internal bleeding over the next day or two. It's not true, but it's been used as a plot device for a lot of mystery novels, movies, TV shows, etc.

Due to the prevalence of the myth, sometimes people suffering from paranoia will begin to think that a friend or family member is trying to kill them, and they get obsessive over checking for ground glass, even going to the point of straining everything before drinking it. Needless to say, tartrate crystals in wine can really terrify someone in that situation, because they think they finally have physical proof of the "murder attempts".

[Vinotology]

James, I'll give you three guesses where the wine that inspired this post came from, and the second two don't count. :)

I'm right with you on this. Definitely prefer my wine be manipulated as little as possible.

[Vinotology]

Nice, I like it. You could write a mystery story about someone who wants to push someone with this paranoia over the edge and uses a tartrate throwin' wine to do it. :)

[Luke Andrews]

I think I know of a certain 2005 chard that has LOTS of these.

[Vinotology]

Hmmm, I think I've had that wine. :)

[Mary Cressler]

I used to work at a winery and we produced a Gewurztraminer one year that had tartrates. One day we had a lady return the bottle she bought. She was frantic and telling us there were glass shards in her wine and we needed to recall every bottle of wine we sold of it and warn everybody of the danger. I calmly told her about what it really was. Not glass! Not harmful at all. From that day on, we pre-warned all customers buying Gewurz about them, telling them they were actually "lucky" if they get to see these "crystals" in their wine, and most importantly to not freak out and resume drinking their lovely wine.

[Vinotology]

Yeah, seems like having a wine like that is a great opportunity to educate your customers. Definitely a good idea to do a preemptive strike on any complaints of glass in the wine. :)