I have a Cab. Franc (20 gals.) and a Zin-Carignane(15 gals) still in bulk. The wines taste very low in acid. I have an acid testing kit. If I find that the levels are indeed too low, can I add acid blend at this time without ruining the wine? The juices were obtained from Vin Bon (2003). I have heard positive and a lot negative about these juices. I was under the impression that these juices were already balanced. Any advice would be helpful.
Mark L. Buffalo-Niagara USA
If you intend to adjust acid now, just before bottling, do _not_ use acid blend. It contains malic acid; a shot of that could start ML fermentation all over again. Maybe not right away, but after bottling - and that wouldn't be a good thing.
Add tartaric if you must, but I recommend that you do tasting trials. Be sure to cold stabilize the wine after the addition (to drop out the excess bitartrate), but before the tasting trials. The wine will need some time to recover after you do an acid adjustment.
You'll be amazed at how little acid you can add without the wine tasting too tart. This is one of the reasons that acid adjustments are always best done _before_ fermentation.
Tom S
There is nothing wrong with adjusting acid after bulk aging. There are those who argue that it should be done during fermentation and they are probably right, but you can only adjust measured acidity, not balance to taste at the start of fermentation.
At this point, if the acidity tests to be too low then you should add acid. If it does not test to low but it tastes too low then you should add acid.
Be careful though, you can easily add too much acid when adjusting to taste. It think that in repeated tasting as you add wine in small amounts your taste can become dulled. My suggestion is that if you do not reach your target taste in one addition, then do not adjust all the way to taste. Stop short, leave it for a few weeks or a month to totally integrate, and then try again. I have adjusted to taste where I did several adjustments and then found a few months later that I had gone too far.
Ray
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.