What are Wine Diamonds?
Have you ever seen small crystals in the bottom of your glass or bottle of wine?
Commonly known as “wine diamonds”, these are completely harmless, and are a natural byproduct of winemaking. Wine Diamonds form naturally from compounds in the grapes as they are fermented. When the wine is chilled, potassium and tartaric acid from the grapes bind together and form potassium bitartrate crystals. These crystals are the same thing as Cream of Tartar, which we use in baking!
You may occasionally see Wine Diamonds in our Sauvignon Blanc, called “Tall Blonde”, after the wine is chilled. No worries! It’s not considered a flaw, but more a sign that the wine is minimally processed. Wine Diamonds don’t affect the taste of the wine, and are safe to consume.
Large, mass production wineries can rid their wines of these harmless crystals with a process called cold stabilization. This is done by pumping the finished wine into large tanks with glycol chillers, and dropping the temperature of the wine down to about 30F for a few weeks. This causes the Wine Diamond crystals to form and drop to the bottom of the tank. Next, the wine is syphoned or pumped off the crystals into another tank before bottling.
The cold stabilization process and equipment are time consuming and expensive. Here at Copper Beech Winery, we have no glycol chiller tanks. We prefer to bring our wine to you with as little processing as possible, and we love them just the way they are. I hope you do, too!
Cheers,
Lin
For more info on Wine Diamonds aka Cream of Tartar (and some great recipes), click here. https://www.allrecipes.com/article/cream-of-tartar/
________________________________________________________________________________________
[email protected]
Copper Beech Winery LLC - 146 Londonderry Turnpike, Building 3, Unit 23 - Hooksett, New Hampshire 03106
(603)803-3272
Copyright 2012-2024 Copper Beech Winery LLC
Commonly known as “wine diamonds”, these are completely harmless, and are a natural byproduct of winemaking. Wine Diamonds form naturally from compounds in the grapes as they are fermented. When the wine is chilled, potassium and tartaric acid from the grapes bind together and form potassium bitartrate crystals. These crystals are the same thing as Cream of Tartar, which we use in baking!
You may occasionally see Wine Diamonds in our Sauvignon Blanc, called “Tall Blonde”, after the wine is chilled. No worries! It’s not considered a flaw, but more a sign that the wine is minimally processed. Wine Diamonds don’t affect the taste of the wine, and are safe to consume.
Large, mass production wineries can rid their wines of these harmless crystals with a process called cold stabilization. This is done by pumping the finished wine into large tanks with glycol chillers, and dropping the temperature of the wine down to about 30F for a few weeks. This causes the Wine Diamond crystals to form and drop to the bottom of the tank. Next, the wine is syphoned or pumped off the crystals into another tank before bottling.
The cold stabilization process and equipment are time consuming and expensive. Here at Copper Beech Winery, we have no glycol chiller tanks. We prefer to bring our wine to you with as little processing as possible, and we love them just the way they are. I hope you do, too!
Cheers,
Lin
For more info on Wine Diamonds aka Cream of Tartar (and some great recipes), click here. https://www.allrecipes.com/article/cream-of-tartar/
________________________________________________________________________________________
[email protected]
Copper Beech Winery LLC - 146 Londonderry Turnpike, Building 3, Unit 23 - Hooksett, New Hampshire 03106
(603)803-3272
Copyright 2012-2024 Copper Beech Winery LLC
