Acidic wine

Hi all,

I made some wine from grapes last year (Zin) and fresh juice (San Giovese). We tested them and both were low in acidity, so we added tartaric as per instructions. The wine is clearing nicely, and at every racking, we tasted some, it always tasted very good for such a young wine. I racked again recently, and the wine now tastes very acidic to me, all of the carboys do!

My question: Is this a natural chain of events as the wine ages, and will it eventually mellow? or is this how it is going to stay? If so, is there anything that can be done to "soften" the acidity? Cold stabilization?

Thanks for any help! PB

Reply to
Bonaquisti
Loading thread data ...

Cold stabilization _might_ help, but I'll bet you over-adjusted the wine. You can reduce the acidity by adding potassium carbonate, but be careful you don't overshoot _again_! Try a measured adjustment on a small portion of the wine. Chill the wine deeply for a week or two to drop out the excess potassium bitartrate and taste it. If it seems about right, adjust all the wine proportionately and cold stabilize it before bottling. If the adjustment was a little too much or too little, you should have an idea of what would be right, so you can try that on a second sample.

The right way to do acid additions is to measure the pH of the must/juice and add tartaric to bring it to a reasonable starting pH. Bear in mind that after ML the pH will be higher than where you set it, so you may want to compensate for that by targeting on the low side initially. For example, if the starting pH is 3.7, bring it down to 3.4 or so. Then after ML it will probably be about 3.5.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

This seems to be a good place to bring up a related question: increased acidity in stored bottles.

A 2001 Zin from Amador grapes started out with luscious fruit and good balance. No acid was added during vinting. Maybe six months after bottling I finally got a pH meter and measured it in the 3.5 range. 18 months after bottling, though, a sip of the wine crashed into my stomach and the pH now measures 3.1. There is no sign of acetification.

What happened? I don't see anything in the literature about pH dropping so severely without acetic conversion.

Tom S wrote:

Reply to
ernie

The only thing I have to add is don't do anything based on one sample of the wine, especially if the wine tasted good up until this point. You have time. Wait a month or two and taste again (before racking if your going to rack).

Our perception of wine can be influenced by a number of factors including (but not limited to) : Our mood, hunger level, the time of day, how long you've been awake, what you've had to eat and/or drink, if you've brushed your teeth recently, how much alcohol you've already consumed, etc. I try to make adjustment/blending decisions based on multiple tastes/trials.

The wine also changes over time, but not always predictably. I've had wines I thought were overly acidic shortly after bottling turn into nicely balanced wines after some additional bottle age.

My perception? Bottling shock? Evolution of the wine? All of these?

Who knows.

Andy

Reply to
JEP

You are so right! There are times when all my wines disappoint me and then a week later they are fabulous. I have learned not to trust my taste buds too much. It depends on your mood and the food you ate and the company and who knows what else, maybe atmospheric pressure.

Ray

stabilization?

Reply to
Ray

you may want to>compensate for that by targeting on the low side initially. For example,

Reply to
Bonaquisti

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.