Wine Peeps is an independent wine blog dedicated to helping you get the most bang for your buck in wine. We do this through blind tastings of wine from around the world and calculations of 
Wine Word of the Week: Stabilization
By Kori ~ November 13th, 2008.
This week’s Wine Word of the Week is stabilization.
Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine:
Stabilization is a group of wine-processing operations undertaken to ensure that the wine, once bottled, will not form hazes, clouds, or unwanted deposits; become gassy; or undergo rapid deterioration of flavor after bottling. A quick recovery from bottle sickness and subtle changes in flavor that occur with lengthy ageing are considered normal in a stable wine.
Everyday wines are usually more thoroughly stabilized than fine wines since consumers have come to expect them to be crystal clear. ….
Stabilization includes two sorts of operations: one to counter physical and chemical changes and another to counter microbiological changes.
Layman’s terms from Kori:
Stabilization is a technique used primarily in white wine production to make the wine look better. Heat stabilization helps to prevent unsightly haze while cold stabilization precipitates out tartrate crystal deposits.
Filed under: Wine Word of the Week
