Tartrate stabilization on an industrial scale of three sherry wines ("Fino", "Medium" and "Cream") has been carried out by means of cold treatment and electrodialysis with the objective of checking the efficacy of these techniques. This was determined by analysing the compounds involved in the treatments and by conductivity techniques for rapid tartaric stability control (saturation temperature and minicontact test). It has been proven that both cold treatment and electrodialysis imparted tartaric stabilization to all the considered wines, with the latter requiring deionisation rates of 26% in Fino wine and less than 20% in Medium and Cream wines. It has been shown that the minicontact test is a valid method to control the efficacy of the treatments, differentiating between stable and unstable wines. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.