high acid in white wine

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

acko

Junior
Joined
Jul 11, 2017
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
My father is winemaker (bad one) and his wine from last year was too much sour. It's white wine from mixed sorts I think, kept in wooden barrels. He is making wine for over 10 years and this never happened. Is there a way to fix it now?
 
Depends how much time and money your willing to put into it. First you gotta find out just what exactly needs to be adjusted. . Which requires testing. Which then requires equipment and some research.
Lots of options. Checking your pH would probably be the most valuable. They sell cheapo pH dip strips ($5-$10 for a jar of 100) and that will give you a rough idea if you didn't want to spend money on a meter.
Also along with pH acid strength it would benefit to know how much acid is in there with a titritable acid test kit. You could probably find one for less than 20 bucks.
When you know these numbers then you'll likely know what you have to do. Then it would just be a simple chemical addition available at most local brew shops.
 
Last edited:
Did it not go through malolactic fermentation when it normally does?

You could mess with the acidity, which could be tricky to pull off. Also it may trade one wine fault for the other. However, since you are aging it on oak right now, you could perhaps make a "lower than normal" acidity white wine this coming season. Then, after both primary (and perhaps secondary?) fermentation is complete, you could blend the two together. Do a little trial before you blend it and see if you like it. If not, no harm done. You can always add acid to your new wine and get it where you want. It won't help your older, tart batch, but it won't be any worse off than before.
 
Draw a glass and add a bit of sugar to it. See if that helps. If so and you want to add sugar to the batch, make sure you stabilize it before you add, other wise you stand a good chance of having the wine referment. Arne.
 
Thanks everyone for answering. It didn't go through fermentation and sugar was already added. Some people told him that he needs to change barrel.
 
Some people told him that he needs to change barrel.

If he has been making wine for 10 years in the same barrel, I would say that may be part of the problem. So many home made white wines where I live taste like old barrels that had one, or maybe ten, too many sulfur wicks burned in them. Ick.

But also consider, most white wines do not need barrel aging (Chardonnay is a noted exception). Consider bulk aging instead in glass, stainless steel, amphora, or HDPE.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top