Tartrate stabilization, often called cold stabilization, is a wine treatment for the cosmetic benefit of avoiding tartrate crystal formation. Intellectually you know you don’t really need to do it, but you do it anyway. So the priority is to get it done while minimizing both the risk of degrading wine quality and cost.

Until recently, winemakers had few choices. Typically they would set their glycol chiller to 20° F or so, then cool a tank to 26°-28° F for several days and let it slowly warm back up on its own. To speed up the process, winemakers might seed tanks with potassium bitartrate (KHT), and/or use heat exchangers to warm up chilled wine.