I have a high acid Vidal wine from this falls harvest which has a TA of .80 and PH of 3.15. I just pulled it from the garage fridge where it was kept at 40 degrees for three weeks. It has been sulphited and is completely dry. Is there anything that can be done at this stage to give the wine a less bitter taste?
High Acid Low Ph Vidal
Nov 14, 2009
7 Replies
Actually, the numbers do not seem all that bad. How does it taste at a slightly warmer temperature? Some acidic wines taste less so at slightly warmer temperatures. Also, time may help a lot.
If you don't want to wait on it to age, try adding a little sugar to bring it into balance. You don't need to make it sweet, but even an imperceptible (to taste) amount of sugar might cut out the bitterness. Try it on a small batch and see how you like it.
Stephen
Thanks Stephen and Paul for the helpful suggestions!
Sugar is always a nice way to bring downt the TA but sulphite will also do it according to how you want to achieve the taste. At .80 and a PH of 3.5 you can go up to 25 ppm of sulphite without affect the taste and yet adjusting for TA. And of course, cold tempature aging will also help.
How does sugar do this?
How does sulphite bring down TA?
If none of that works you can add potassium bicarbonate to drop it to
6.5 to 7 g/l. 8g/l is actually not bad for Vidal if sweetened a bit as suggested by others but you know what you like so follow that. Do trials to decide what tastes best.Join the Discussion
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