Questions Uncorked

Jun 25, 2008

Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for stopping by, and an even bigger thanks for your question! Have no fear, you were absolutely right to go ahead and drink that wine, there was nothing wrong with it – you weren’t seeing glass shards or anything that would harm you. Instead, what you saw on the cork and inside the bottle were tartrate crystals, a natural sediment that is commonly found in white wines. Many wines that are available today go through a process known as cold stabilization, which means that they are cooled to a point where most of the tartrates precipitate out of the wine and then the wine is filtered to remove the crystals and then bottled. However, some producers believe that this process can strip the wine of some of its flavor and character and therefore, they will skip this step. If a wine that hasn’t gone through cold stabilization is chilled, this can lead to some tartrate precipitation and you will see those small white crystals. While many consumers are used to seeing sediment in red wines, see it is white wines can be a bit disconcerting. But tartrate crystals are completely harmless and just another indication of that fact that wine is a natural product!