Ever heard of wine diamonds? Seen little bits of what might be irregular shaped salt or sugar in the bottom of your glass? Perhaps maybe thought it was shards of glass even?
This is potassium bitartrate (also cream of tarter in your kitchen essentially)
Wine diamonds come from the tartaric acid in grapes bonding with the potassium. The precipitation out happens when the wine gets chilled and the two bond together. Considerably the same as popping a bottle down into the cellar for a couple years or into the fridge to chill the white before consuming.
At the commercial level, we do cold stability for the consumer so the little diamonds don't show up at home and create a "faulty" product.
This literally evolves taking the blended wines and putting the glycol chilling jacket on. And the rest is wait around for a week and watch the ice grow on the outside of the tank. During this time, the aim is -4/-6 for a minimum 4/5 days. Longer won't hurt the wine, but just make sure its stable.
We use welded glycol jackets on the backs of the tank, completely seperate from the wine, and indurstial chiller and way too much hose to connect it all.
