Single crystals of potassium hydrogentartrate, (2R,2R)‐KO2C(CHOH)2CO2H, were taken from a three‐year‐old wine bottle. The structure was determined by low‐temperature single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction analysis using a Siemens SMART diffractometer. (2R,2R)‐KO2C(CHOH)2CO2H crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group P212121 with Z = 4 and unit cell dimensions a = 7.6065(5), b = 7.7599(5), and c = 10.6054(7) Å. The structure of an isolatedhydrogentartrate anion, (2R,2R)‐[O2C(CHOH)2‐CO2H]−, was calculated at the semiempirical AM1 and PM3 levels of theory with a VSTO‐3G* basis set and in addition ab initio at the self‐consistent level of theory using a standard 6‐31G(d, p) basis set (Non‐SI units employed: kcal ≈ 4.184 kJ, Å = 10−10 m).© 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 9:307–310, 1998