Hello from Spain:
I've just finished malolactic fermentation and the wine is too acid. However it only contains 0.5g acetic acid/L. The TA is correct (6.0). I've made CaCO3 proofs and I can get through TA=5 with out pH problem, but it still tastes too hard. I'm thinking that it could be a problem of acetaldehyde or ethyl acetate, but I'm not sure. What can I do? Any suggestion?
Thank you for your help
David
David, Is this a red and are you expressing the acid as tartaric? Were the grapes very moldy? (I'm wondering if the source of the acetic is moldy grapes or a film yeast and oxygen exposure.) That does not sound like an exceptionally high acid level.
You are doing a double salt with that chalk, right? It acts preferentially with tartaric, so most people pull off 25 to 35% of the wine to be treated and add all of the chalk to tha. Once it eats all the tartaric, it goes after the malic. Then just blend it back in with the whole batch.
If you are sure you have 0.5 g/l acetic you are getting pretty close to the detectable range and that could be why it tastes sharp to you. Have you considered blending to reduce that? I would be very careful if I did not know the source of the acetic acid; (this is not an area I have a lot of experience in). Pastuerization is one way to stop acetic acid formation, but that is pretty drastic. Hopefully some others will have better ideas for you.
Regards, Joe
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