We are witnessing winter being brought back to the cellar in the beginning of summer here at the winery. Fourteen of our stainless steel tanks are filled to capacity with 51,000 gallons of our 2007 Santa Barbara County Chardonnay. The wine is currently going through the cold stabilization process. During this step of the white wine making process, the wine is chilled down to 32 degrees F in order to remove all tartrates (also known as “wine diamonds“). These tartrates form when the wine gets too cold. While they are natural sediment and completely harmless, they can sometimes be cause for consumer dissatisfaction. So in order to prevent this, winemakers force the tartrate crystals to form at the winery bringing them out of solution so that they can be filtered out before bottling. The thermal mass of 51,000 gallons at 32 degrees chills the entire building.
Our Assistant Winemaker Ryan tells me that the next step is to “seed the wine with cream of tartar,” which gives the tartrates something to grab onto as they fall to the bottom of the tank. Once they do this, keeping tanks at 32 degrees, the next step is to filter the wine at .2 microns, removing the tartrates from solution. Once filtering is completed, the wines will be warmed up to over 55 degrees and the bottling process will begin, leaving us with a “crisp, clean, wonderful Santa Barbara County Chardonnay for a very reasonable price,” says Ryan. Until then, and while the icicles continue to form on the outside of the steel tanks, I will be wearing my mittens in the winery.
Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery
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