Definition: Cold room

This winemaking facility allows for different treatments of grapes, musts or wine. A cold room is used to delay the start of fermentation of the musts, which can remain in contact with the grape skins for longer. The cold room reduces yeast activity in special winemaking processes. It is also used to treat finished wine with cold in order to precipitate potassium bitartrate before bottling. A final use of the cold room is to freeze grapes in preparation for cryoextraction or to produce ice wine. See Eiswein.