Question.. Do I use the same recommended levels as White wine when making Rose wine?
Example:
Red Wine, range from 3.4 to 3.65 ph
??Rose Wine, range from 3.1 to 3.45 ph ??
White Wine, range from 3.1 to 3.45 ph
I have a problem with the above example from a pragmatic approach to making wine. While I don't see any problem with the ranges listed what I find troubling is how that can be misinterpreted into doing something in the way of adjusting that can be detrimental to the wine. Ph is determined by the conditions of the vineyard, the grape ripeness and the growing conditions. The range of Ph is wide for what really matters, the health and the aging quality of the wine. The suggestion to taste a juice at the beginning and adjust ph from that requires much skill and experience working with the same fruit each time. It would take quite a pallet to determine if the unfermented juice tasted better at 3.3 or 3.2. So while taste is the most important thing, in that regard, I would not be adjusting any PH if the Must was in a safe range or close to the ones that you provided above. For example if you crushed a Chardonnay and it was a ph of 3.6 and a TA of .60 I would not be adjusting anything until the end of fermentation. Where then taste would guide me not numbers. Then if I bench tested a few samples of the wine with various additions of tartaric to lower the ph and raise the TA then the one I picked would be on taste. Where the numbers ended up on the one I picked would be just numbers and not that important at all. Even if the one I picked was not in the range you provided above.
Malvina
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