Acid Adjustments

[kwb1963]

Hi All. I'm trying to raise the acidity of two whites and a red wine that are bulk aging. I added tartaric acid last month to all three. Target was 7.0 g/L for the whites and 6.5 g/L for the red. I added 1/2 the amount calculated after testing. But today, a month later, the PH is the same (high) and the acidity is the same. There is also a bed of tartrate crystals in the bottom of the carboys. How can I reach target acidity levels if the tartaric I add just keeps precipitating out?

 

[novalou]

Hi All. I'm trying to raise the acidity of two whites and a red wine that are bulk aging. I added tartaric acid last month to all three. Target was 7.0 g/L for the whites and 6.5 g/L for the red. I added 1/2 the amount calculated after testing. But today, a month later, the PH is the same (high) and the acidity is the same. There is also a bed of tartrate crystals in the bottom of the carboys. How can I reach target acidity levels if the tartaric I add just keeps precipitating out?

How does the wine taste?

 

[kwb1963]

All three wines taste pretty good at this point. The two whites are from Lodi, Albarino and Pinot Grigio. Excellent bouquets, but slightly round/flat taste. I was hoping increased acid would sharpen the flavor and give it the zing I'm used to with with most dry whites. The red in question is a Zin from Amador. Also dry, smells wonderful, but almost tastes sweet. This one's flavor is noticeably flat. Most of it is in a 6-1/2 gal barrel, but the 1-gal jug of left over has tartrate crystals in the bottom. I'm sure the barrel does too. Anyway, this is only my second try with actual grapes. I made mistakes with pre-fermentation acid calculations my fist try and over-acidulated several musts. I've done my homework and gotten a PH meter since then. But I was still afraid to make a pre-fermentation adjustment to these, even though they all had low acidity. Now that I'm trying to adjust them post-fermentation, it doesn't seem to be working. My basement temp ranges between 55-60 F, and the tartaric acid I've added seems to just precipitate out.