Questions about a Merlot

I purchased several Merlots, by different makers, to drink and compare. One was given 89 points beside the price display. The aromas were spot on, everything seemed to be there. The taste had good flavors, but was a little different than normal. Checked the pH @3.6, went back to drinking, during the 3rd glass I had to check the TA. It titrated to .25 using 1cc out of 3cc.
Checked everything twice, using ph meter and strips.

How can the wine be at 3.6pH and so low a TA .25 ?


Can anyone explain this?

That's easy!

dcbrown73 said:

That's easy!

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I felt the wine was flawed. I don't know if this was done on purpose or if something happened along the way.
It was a 2013
14 Hands Winery
Merlot
Columbia Valley.
I am hoping someone can explain this, I've never had this happen before.
Most Merlots I check have a pH @ 3.6 and a TA @ .60 to .65
Or very close to these numbers.

Honestly, I understand pH a little bit (had a pool for many years), but I know next to nothing about TA or how they apply in tandem to wines.

14 Hands is a "bargain" "ready to drink tonight" wine from Altria which is the giant conglomerate corporation (Phillip Morris) that owns several of WA State largest wineries including Ch. Ste. Michelle and Columbia Crest. That wine saw zero barrel time and only oak adjuncts. It was stripped of most of the tannins so it could be ready to drink in a year or so and maybe off dry just a bit to make it even more approachable to the masses in short order.

This is not a wine you want to try and replicate unless your better half just love, love, loves it. It just a cut above Yellow Tail.

Tnuscan said:

Can anyone explain this?

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ibglowin said:

14 Hands is a "bargain" "ready to drink tonight" wine from Precept which is the giant conglomerate corporation that owns most of WA State wines including St. Michelle and Columbia Crest. That wine saw zero barrel time and only oak adjuncts. It was stripped of most of the tannins so it could be ready to drink in a year or so and maybe off dry just a bit to make it even more approachable to the masses in short order.

This is not a wine you want to try and replicate unless your better half just love, love, loves it. It just a cut above Yellow Tail.

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Thanks.

I've been having a hard time trying to understand the numbers. Didn't realize one could manipulate a wine that way. I didn't have my glasses, so I don't know who gave the 89 point rating. Guess I fell for a clever marketing technique. Someone said it was a good wine to try for the price, and maybe their wine was good, mine may have been from a bad batch.

Now that I think about it, I remember someone saying they went to a winery once and drank a glass of wine that they thought was awesome. They bought a whole case of it. Half way thru the 1st bottle they realized they had made a huge mistake.

I have a lot to learn, Thanks again!

14 Hands is not a bad wine for the price but its not top shelf either so you have to reel in the expectations a bit. They have also have some Reserve wines that have scored as high as 93 pts Wine Spectator but they also cost about 3X as much as the bottle regular bottle you bought. Your TA could have been off as well. You didn't give any details as to what you used to test TA, were you chem's fresh etc.

ibglowin said:

14 Hands is not a bad wine for the price but its not top shelf either so you have to reel in the expectations a bit. They have also have some Reserve wines that have scored as high as 93 pts Wine Spectator but they also cost about 3X as much as the bottle regular bottle you bought. Your TA could have been off as well. You didn't give any details as to what you used to test TA, were you chem's fresh etc.

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Sorry,

The pH was tested with a pH meter, then two pH strips.
The TA was tested with 2 different titration kits, and the pH meter.
I know it probably sounds silly but sometimes I test the pH and TA on wines I buy. Especially the ones that seem a little off.
The wine was drank only by me over a Hour and a half period of time.
The last glass was very annoying to drink. I may try another bottle... if I can get up the nerve.

Pick up a Pride merlot if you want a good one to compare and test. Well worth it in my opinion, one of my favs.

brewbush said:

Pick up a Pride merlot if you want a good one to compare and test. Well worth it in my opinion, one of my favs.

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Pride wines, in general, are very good. My dad used to buy Cab Sauv from them every year. Good stuff!

Might be a good wine but not a fair matchup by any means. LOL

14 Hands = $10 a bottle

Pride Merlot = $60 a bottle.

brewbush said:

Pick up a Pride merlot if you want a good one to compare and test. Well worth it in my opinion, one of my favs.

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ibglowin said:

Might be a good wine but not a fair matchup by any means. LOL

14 Hands = $10 a bottle

Pride Merlot = $60 a bottle.

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This is true, "one gets what he pays for". It's a little hobby of mine, I'm not expecting a lot to start with but sometimes I get surprised.

Is it possible to hold a pH level @ 3.6 and move the TA that low or even close? I assumed one acid level had to affect the other. This is what has been so hard for me to understand. I feel that it's impossible to do.

pH and TA (Titratable Acidity) are interconnected just not directly proportional.

In a must or wine there are both free and bound, hydrogen particles. pH is a measurement of how many free positively charged hydrogens are around. When measuring TA, you add sodium hydroxide to the must. What happens is, you deal with the free hydrogens, those responsible for the pH. But even as you do and as you continue to add more sodium hydroxide, you actually start to unhook bound hydrogens and make them free. Only when you have added sufficient sodium hydroxide to unhook all accessible hydrogens is your measurement of TA complete. Since the proportions of free and bound hydrogens varies greatly according to grape varietal, ripeness, growing conditions and so on, so does the relationship between pH and TA.