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Metatartaric acid

Tartrate and colloidal stabilisers

A cheap, temporary block on tartrate crystallisation.

Typical dose

Around 100 mg/L, at bottling.

When to add it

At bottling, on a wine that will be drunk within a year or two.

In practice

Coats the growing faces of potassium bitartrate crystals so they cannot form, sidestepping cold stabilisation entirely. The catch is that it hydrolyses and stops working within months, faster if the wine is stored warm, so it only suits a wine that will be drunk young.

Linked faults are the ones this addition either treats or, used wrongly, causes. The fault page says which, and whether it can be undone.