high pH opinion

If the wine is sufficiently clear and has flavor profile you desire, I would sulfite appropriate to the pH and bottle it. It all comes down to what you think you need to achieve with additional bulk aging and whether it's worth risking exposing your wine to oxidation.

Having said that, I'm curious why you're using an airlock. If MLF is complete, you may be better off using a rubber bung on your carboys instead. Are you observing browning at the top of your carboy?

Well, about 2-3 weeks ago, I went through my first and hopefully last exploded carboy situation - I had about 3 carboys bunged solid and one of them couldn't handle the +2C gradual change in temperature. I'm in an condo without air conditioning, so the storage conditions are less than ideal in summer. So basically, that's why I went from solid bungs back to airlocks in the last year.

As for colour, no, don't see any brown shades. Also, I've used the same airlocks for whites and cider and another red with lower pH and don't have any issues there, so it really looks like it's pH related.

Pp

Pp, Excessive SO2 lose is indicative of excessive oxidation. I think you have an

Pp, Excessive SO2 consumption is indicative of excessive oxidation. I think you have an airlock problem rather than a pH problem. Good luck, Lum

A few comments. Typically, high pH wines will not age well, so if you like what you have, start drinking it. It may not get much better before it starts to decline. No problem in this unless you keep it too long. I would go ahead an bottle.

As a second option, you might want to bottle part of it as it and experiment with bringing the pH down on part of it for longer term storage. Be aware that the pH scale is logarithmic. At a high pH of 3.8 to 4.0 it does not take much acid to bring the ph down. At 3.1 to 3.3 it would take a lot of acid to bring the pH down. If you experiment on a gallon or so of the wine you might find that you can reduce the pH to 3.5 to 3.6 without effecting the acid taste of the wine very much.

Ray

Thanks, Ray. I heard this as a general principle but never saw it really quantified, whether the decline is a matter of months or years. I don't mind if the wine will last only 2-3 years, but if it's less than a year or so, then I'd definitely prefer to lower the pH.

Actually, I was thinking along the same lines and done the expriment already with a leftover bottle from 1st racking. I used 2g/L of tartaric to bring it to 3.6, which turned out to be 3.5 after I froze the wine for a week to cold stabilize fully. The TA actually stayed on the same level as before the addition. This would definitely indicate adding about 1.5g/L of tartaric is the way to go; the only quandary is that I don't have great conditions for cold stabilization, and so there is a fair chance the wine would end up too acidic. The TA is currently at 6.5, and I don't really want the acidity higher that it is right now.

I will probably go this route in the end so that I can compare the taste development and aging capabilites in the two treatments. If the acid is too high in the end, I can always blend it with what I make this year I guess.

Pp

Make sure you degassed the sample. 6.5 g/l and 3.85 pH seem out of whack.

I pull 50 ml, boil, add distilled back to 50 ml when cool to room temp and measure. It impacts TA severely; on the order of 1 to 2 g/l in my experience.

Joe

Okay, thanks Joe, haven't thought about that. The wine is almost a year old, was fermented relatively warm and has been sitting under an airlock until now, so I figured CO2 wouldn't be an issue. It could also be my sodium hydroxide - I've opened a new bottle but is has been sitting in the storage room for a while. In any case, the TA is just a rough reference number; at this stage, I prefer to adjust by the taste.

As an update, I racked the Syrah over the weekend, kept 6 gals as is and added 1.5g/L tartaric to remaining 3 gals. The 3 gals will be cold stabilized over winter.

There didn't seem to be any permanent damage from the oxidation at the top, but per Lum's advice, I went back to solid bungs on these. Fingers crossed, there won't be any more carboy explosions in the living room...

Pp