Dr. Aude Watrelot, Jennie Savits, & Maureen Moroney | 2020
potassium bitartrate (KHT) crystals, also known as wine diamonds, are not harmful to consumers, but may be considered a visual defect of the wine in the bottle or glass. They may appear like salt crystals, glass shards, or fine dust. In red wines, they may be pigmented. Tartrate stability may be achieved by chilling or by contact seeding with chilling, both of which encourage KHT crystals to form and precipitate, so that the wine can be racked or filtered to remove them prior to bottling.