I've been drinking wine for what seems like a hundred years but my cellar experience is only a couple years old. Consequently, I'm a bit confused by what's happening with my little treasures.
There is a cloudy "sediment" type material forming in most of my bottles, even the young ones like the 97 Cooper Garrod George's and the 01 Castano Solenera. It's not the crystal-like chunky sediment I've seen before, but rather a cloudy, murky mass that consumes about the last 3-4 ounces when the bottle is decanted. Obviously makes it impossible to drink them without decanting. It may be just a coincidence, but it seems as though the Bordeaux's haven't produced any (yet).
My questions are, What is it, Is it normal, and could it be from my cellar getting to cold?
I have a passive cellar that that is about 55-53F in the winter. However, I don't know if the temp is dipping down in the wee hours of the morning.

RRV- Do you stand up older wines before consumption? If not, then maybe what you are seeing is sediment before it collects at the bottom.

Most of my wine is stored on its side, but for older bottles I try to stand them up a few days. These days older means anything >4-5 years from vintage date. Some wines at 3 years throw a lot of sediment, some don't throw any after 15 years.

********
Yes, but I came here for an argument.

Oh! Oh! I'm sorry, this is abuse.

I'm assuming the cloudiness you're referring to is the really fine dark particles suspended in the wine, aka the sediment.

This is the stuff that fall out of the wine to form a crust on older bottles. The amount of fining will determine how much is left. Many Australian producers subscribe to Max Schubert's philisophy that the crust are the bones that support a wine's aging, and will not highly filter wines meant for long term cellaring.

And yes, it means that decanting is a must, and helps explain all those paragraphs about a light under the neck of a bottle so you can see when the sediment is coming out and the need to decant in one continuous motion.

------------------------------
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer

The suspension is very, very, fine. Almost like ink. I understand that it's sediment and that decanting is required, but I guess I was surprised to see it in such young wines. And I was assuming that the cool temps accelerate the process since the same vintage wine on the retail racks don't have any sediment. Not being an experienced wine "collector", I wasn't sure if the same wine stored at 55F or 68F would have the same amount of sediment, or if my wine has more than usual because I'm doing something wrong.

RRV,

No need to worry, sediment can form very quickly in some wines. Consider it a badge of honour

------------------------------
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer