Have you noticed wine crystals in you wine before? Sparkling in the bottom of your glass (most common and easiest to see in white wines)? Or encrusting the cork? Read on below to discover what they are and why they don't really matter.
These crystals are harmless, tasteless and a perfectly normal part of wine. They are tartrates which solidify when tartaric acid, naturally occurring in grapes, is chilled to very cold temperatures. That can happen when whites are left in a fridge, or where age-worthy wines spend a few cold winters in a cellar that is not temperature controlled. We usually find them when we've left a bottle of Chablis or Vouvray in the fridge too close to the cooling outlet.
Because humans are a bit funny about what we put in our mouths, many will assume a wine is faulty if these tartrate crystals appear. Rest assured, it is not a fault. You could choose to decant or filter them out of your wine, but you won't notice if you drink them.
Because of the negative reaction they can evoke in consumers who don't know about wine crystals, it is common, particularly in mass produced and lower quality white wines, for the winery to store the wine in a deep chill prior to bottling. That way the tartrates can form and be filtered out so that there is no risk of the end consumer creating the crystals in their fridge. Some of our winemakers believe this impacts the quality of the wine, and so choose not to do it.
So, dear reader, with this new found knowledge you can now marvel at the beauty of wine crystals, while continuing to happily sip away.