Making Better Wine by Managing Acids
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
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Choosing the right acid is extremely important when adjusting your wine. This video explains when to use acid blend, malic acid, tartaric acid, or citric acid when making wine. Adjusting acid should be done before ferementation, but can also be performed during aging or prior to bottling the wine. - Jak na to + styl
Very timely video for me. I have 6 gallons of Chardonnay that needs a bit of an acid boost before going in the bottle, and this is good info.
Lots of great information and perspective. Thanks
thanks for the suggestion on the pH meter!
I am a mead maker and this is a very big topic that is going on in some of the mead communities. And I am going to share this video with them as it's very informative. Thank you.
Your the best for giving good information. Here,s an experiment I made and had a very good success .5 gal.of red wine- 60 oz. 90% alcohol and one cup of grade A maple syrup. Best before eating your dessert. (2 oz, ) !!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( Just follow the regular rules of wine making )
Very informative you Definetly know your stuff.
Thank you! I always apppreciate the good feedback. How is your channel going? Got any recommendations for good value reds lately?
Thank you for this video 👍
thank
you
Good video.
Your vedio is so informative for me ,thank you bro ,I would like to visit my country Nepal .I would love to open wine factory in mr country .
Be sure to remind everyone to give you a thumbs up at the end of your videos! I almost always forget and a reminder is helpful.
potassium bicarbonate results in a 1 g/L reduction in titratable acidity. Under typical wine conditions and normal use, potassium bicarbonate neutralizes only tartaric acid. It is best used on high acid and low pH wines.
How often do you recommend testing pH while aging (after primary/secondary fermentation and gross lee racking)? At each racking, monthly, etc? Or only just before bottling?
Really useful info. Thank you.
I have a batch of homemade wine that has been stored for over a year in a barrel. About 3 gallons. It’s a bit ‘tart’ I’m guessing a bit acidic. Can I still add malolactic bacteria to it to make it more buttery?
Could you adjust ph with lactic acid or is it only recommended to use the other acids you mentioned?
Thanks for all of your videos. They have been extremely informational and helpful. I have a sangio in a carboy from 2019. I'm trying to get a handle on the acidity. It has a good TA of about .7 but the PH is 3.1 and the taste is a bit sour. I have it cold stabilizing now but wondering if you have any advice. Thanks!
Thank you! Your TA is within reason but the pH is a little low. The best thing to do would be to blend with a wine that has a little higher pH. You can use a reliable malolactic bacteria like ch35 to nudge the pH up a bit also by converting the malic acid to Lactic acid. I'd probably do this even if you do blend. You can also give it a little nudge with potassium bicarbonate. You will want to cold stabilize again after adding though. If you can get it up to about 3.25 a malolactic fermentation will b easier to get going which bring it up about .15 to .3 more. If you use a heavier toast oak it will add a bit of sweetness to offset the acid. If you get it almost right but it is just a little tart still, you can add a little glycerine. It is a natural biproduct of fermentation and has a slightly sweet taste and huge mouth feel. You will only want to add a tiny bit though. A couple tsp is a good start.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel The Home Winemaking Channel Thanks for the advice! Couple more questions. I inoculated with optimalo at the end of primary fermentation. I'm not sure it took due to the low ph. If I blend to get the ph up to 3.25 or so could I add ch35 without any issue? I want to add more body as it's pretty light. Thinking of blending with Syrah. Do you blend with commercially finished wine? Anything to keep in mind while blending? It's only about 4 gallons as I'm still learning.
I have been making muscadine wine for ten years and recently upgraded to an electric metal grape crusher so that I no longer need to stomp grapes for crushing. Turns out that the grape crusher hopper metal is interacting with the acidic muscadine grapes and is staining any grapes that linger in the hopper a grey almost black color. Grapes that get stuck between the metal hopper and spinning crusher wheel are affected the most. I cannot tell for sure if the hopper is steel or aluminum, but it appears to be thin steel. It is old and appears made specifically for grapes. This is my first crusher, so I don't know if this is normal. This also stains the hands grey when cleaning up the metal hopper after use. Would you have any concerns about the muscadine grape juice interacting with metal hopper or becoming dangerous since the juice and fruit can appear stained?
Bit of a challenge and question, my wine is Six weeks old and I’ve racked it one time so far after the first 3 weeks. I bought it already pressed from the local wine supplier on the skins. I kept it on the skins until it’s finished fermenting and then racked it for the first time. I’m now six weeks in and check my pH for the first time and it came in at 5.5. Wine taste flat to me and that seems like a very high rating of pH. I’m not sure what acid I need to add and how much. I have a red wine blend of Nebiolo and Cabernet.
Do you have a list of target pH and/or TA for wine types? Also - do you have a video about steps needed just before bottling--outlining final acid adjustment, how to do it and how long prior to bottling, when to add SO2, etc? I have an Italian merlot that has undergone MF, and the pH is at about 3.85 or so - needs adjusting down, which will help with ability to age long; but won't SO2 help with that too? What would be ideal pH for such a wine? Thanks - love your channel!
The recommended acidity ranges are provided with a TA Wine testing kit. For a red wine 0.06-0.65 % Tartaric acid
Do you typically adjust acid or ph in the beginning or in the finished wine? By the way great channel just found it I’m working my way through your videos thank you!
Thank you! I generally make acid adjustments very early to allow them to better integrate within the wine and the wine to become stable at the pH that you want. If the acid is too low (high pH), the wine will be much more vulnerable through the aging period. If you add or remove acid too late, compounds that were stable at the higher pH may no longer be stable and can drop out. Or worse, things may have already dropped out that would have otherwise been stable at the proper pH.
New subscriber here -- great channel! Do you ever make wine from cold weather grapes? Specifically, I am growing Marquette grapes in my small vineyard (about 150 vines), and am thinking of taking a stab at making some wine. I had planned on selling the grapes to local wineries, but may make a bit myself just to learn the process.
Yes I do! I live in Pennsylvania so we have a lot of local cold weather grapes. For the most part I source my red grapes from California and Chile bit I am growing a little experimental vineyard in my backyard with all cold Hardy grapes. I have Noiret, Traminette, Marquette, Riesling, Blaufrankisch, Cab Franc, and Merlot. From the growing side, if you have a colder climate I think you will want to the vegetative growth from running too wild and prune to expose the berries to as much sun as possible. Where specifically are you located? I am a huge fan of the growers making wine so that they make the right decisions in the vineyard to help the winemakers make better wine!
It looks like I posted a similar question on another of your videos just seconds ago! Sorry for the duplication! Too many browser windows open (I just sent you an email as well). As for the pruning, I just hedged the vines with a hedge trimmer as they were completely filling the isles! I'll be in the vineyard again today putting in end posts. Lots of work growing grapes!
Back to the grapes -- I pruned out all of the flowers early this year as I am concentrating on the vines this year and will have the first harvest next year -- but a lot of flowers escaped and have fruited. If the birds don't get them, I would like to make a bit of wine and/or give the grapes away. If any of your subscribers are in SW Wisconsin, they are welcome to them.
i really need help with pear wine taste kinda harsh and sour need your help i already degas it alittle better and the end taste still a little sour do that has to do with acid,mali, tartaric,or citric acid
Does lack of sugar make a wine smell soury?
made some muscadine wine 4 gal , it's a bit tart what can i do.
Great videos and great information. I am currently fermenting a Lenoir (Spanish Black) i grow in a small vineyard in Texas. I tested the grapes before picking. They were also sweet, smallish in size , and had mature firm seeds and brownish stems. In our high 90 degree climate there is not much room for error. I picked them, de-stemmed them, added the metabisulfite, mild hand squeezing and then cold soaked them for several days at 36 degrees. I added the Lallzyme Ex a couple days in and then warmed them up to the mid 80's for several days before bring them quickly back to the lower 70's. I used a D21 yeast hydrated with filtered water and some juice. pH 3.86 and SG at 1.05. Despite punching down the must 3x per day, the juice is super thick and really hard to get accurate readings. It's not unlike a barely thinned jam which is causing inaccurate SG readings and Brix readings. the pH is running about about 4.06, the SG is 1.010 at 71.4 degrees and malolactic seems high at about 200. I'm over my head here and don't want to lose this. Any help appreciated. The fermentation at room temp is about 74 degrees. what do i do before I press.
The lallzyme can really break down the skins to the point of mush. Don't worry too much about that, but you will need to rack off the gross lees within about 48hrs of pressing since they are basically mush. You can generally tell when the wine is about done fermenting, when the cap stops rising. I would worry the most about the pH. You are going to want to get ahead of that. Unfortunately the grapes were probably a little over ripe at the start. You are going to want to use tartaric acid to bring the pH down to at least 3.8. even at that, it can keep sneaking up on you. Ideally a red wine should be below 3.6 through primary fermentation or else it can dramatically climb based on the pKa of tartaric acid and potassium. This is going to be a wine that should probably be drank relatively young based on the low acid. You can also add a good bit of tannin to help offset the low acid.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel
Thank you for that insight. I have added the tartaric acid and tannin and am about to check on the pH. If all is good I'm going to press as the cap is just about gone when I checked last night. The goal is to add a little grenache later in blending with brandy and make port. Thank you again for the help!
Many of the recipes I have seen for home wine makers call for the juice of a lemon. I assume that is the, use what you have approach, so wouldn't Acid Blend be better than a lemon? You talked about keeping some wine back for blending. What kind of wine do you find you use more often to blend.
hi! Thanks for the videos, I've watched a bunch and you're so helpful and knowledgeable. Just to clarify, you use these acids to make the PH go up, while potassium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate to make the PH go down? I'm new and a little in over my head. Tried my wine recently and it seemed off (obviously not perfect b/c it's not ready still collecting sediment at the bottom), but still concerned and expecting needed adjustments. Thank you so much!
Thank you! Adding acid will make the pH go down (lower pH is more acidic) and adding carbonated will make the pH go up.
Is it required acid blend for all the wash and mash while fermentation. ????
Can i use metatartaric acid instead of tartaric acid? What's difference between them?
Do you have a video explain what to do when you’ve added too much? Or had a really high acidic grape?
Hey man, finishing up a Chardonnay kit and using your ice bomb idea to get it to clear. Got the temps in the low 60s. Anyhow, fellow Pittsburgh guy and I think I want to do a red wine from grapes this fall. Where do you get your grapes locally, and when are they available?
Nice! I get my grapes from consumer produce in the strip district. They should be ready mid September to early October depending on the variety and the grower.
Pineapple is generally very high on acid in general primarily citric acid, followed by a bit of malic acid.
Do you recommend reducing the citric acid?
or adding a bit of tartaric acid to round off the acidity of flavor?
Thanks for an excellent informative video.
I have the same question with my Muscadine Wine.
Does anyone know a good way to round out the pineapple acid???
SO is adding acid near bottling going to restart anything? is it fine to adjust near to bottling?
I just finished fermenting my merlot added mallactic but I'm a little nervous because I have a ph of 4.4. Should I get that to 3.7?
If you have a wine that is a higher than recommended PH, say 4, and you don't want to alter the taste are you safe bottling it if you add sulfites and don't intend to store it long term?
Is it good to do acid adjustment on non-fruit alcoholic beverages? Like mead for example. What is the target ph level there?
Can we use litmus paper instead of pH meter for measuring acid level.?
I’m having a problem with too acidic red wine must, im using local alphonse lavelee grapes thats have ph 2,9-3,0 what do you think should i do??? Thxs
You could make a rose style wine with them with very little adjustment. You can bring the pH up with potassium bicarbonate but I don't think the resulting wine would be very good with that aggressive of an adjustment. If the grower can expose the berries to a little more sun on the Vines, you might squeak out a couple pH points higher. You could also make a semi-sweet wine with the grapes. I wouldn't recommend a lot of skin time, since I'm guessing the seeds are going to be pretty green and bell pepper tasting. You can innoculate with a pretty hardcore malolactic culture like CH35 also. I would keep the SO2 very low though for any hope of a malolactic fermentation. You will have very little risk of oxidation until the pH creeps up a little.
I have been helping with a small sangiovese grape vineyard. TA is high at 13 after fermentation, pH is at 3.32. Planning on doing a malolactic fermentation. Any suggestions on lowering the TA?
You could hit it with a little potassium bicarbonate, but I wouldn't.. Sangiovese is notoriously high acid. Your pH is in a pretty good spot which trumps TA in my book. I would encourage a malolactic fermentation with some ch16 or ch25 mlb and let the wine go through a cold cycle during aging to hopefully drop out some tartaric acid. If you can work up to about 3.5 you will be sitting pretty with a Sangiovese. It is gonna take a couple years to smooth out though
Pine Apple Guava has a lot of salicylic acid (SA). Can you tell me since the PH is around 3.5 If I were to adjust IF my PH went more basic what acid would you use for Pine Apple Guava?
I am making a lemon wine. The pH is at 4.0 about three weeks post fermentation. I think I need to get pH down closer to 3.4 (I am basing this on an assumption that lemon wine should be considered like a white wine, that assumption may not be correct).
I have tartaric acid, and an acid blend. Which would you recommend for decreasing pH. I am thinking just tartaric acid. Does that sound right?
You can use either. For grape based wines I always use 100% tartaric acid. For a fruit or "country" wine it becomes more of a preference, or in many cases what pairs best with that fruit. In the case of a lemon wine, I normally would use acid blend (tartaric, malic and citric). It will require more back-sweetening to achieve balance though because the malic and citric are a good bit more "sour" tasting.
I tried adding lactic acid and it screwed my wine up so I dont recommend it
Sir My red wine ph leavel 2.5 How to increase ph leavel.
I’ve got three batches of muscadine wine (all Red)that I’m working with. I’m in primary fermentation now and the pH prior to adding yeast was around 2.78. What do I need to raise the pH and when do I need to do it? Thanks in advance, I’ve been learning a lot from you!
Consider double salt deacidification, you'll have to google that one, it's kinda complicated
Hi, what acid would u recommend if I am making wine from a starchy root crop like dasheen??
Wow, that is a tough one! I would probably use acid blend (malic, citric, tartaric) rather than one single acid. That way the taste of any one of the acids won't dominate the wine. Good luck!
Can you tell us how to Mack a wine taste similar to Manischewitz cream concord wine? Or how do you cream a red wine , the more I learn the more I want to experiment, also can wine loose ABV while aging in secondary fermenter after it been stabilized?
Hmmm, I have never had Manischewitz cream concord wine but I have some ideas. Since it is white but made from a red grape, it is probably pressed immediately after crushing the berries, or even pressed as whole berries. I believe anything from Manischewitz is boiled to keep it "kosher", so that can give it more of a cooked grape or pie taste. They also have pretty high residual sugar which can be achieved by "cold crashing" the wine, or by back sweetening. If the wine tastes buttery at all, that would be as a result of malolactic fermentation. You can innoculate with malolactic bacteria or encourage it to happen naturally by keeping the sulfites low for a couple months after primary fermentation. If you wanted to stall the malolactic fermentation part way through, you can add about 75ppm of sulfites, or boil the wine. The main way that a wine can lose alcohol during aging would be from the alcohol turning to vinegar from the effects of oxidation. The perception of alcohol will go down over time. A young wine usually tastes pretty strong and aggressive before mellowing out as the tannins, alcohol and acids integrate into the wine and mature.
Hi Rick, I hope all is well. Just a silly question. How do you store your Yeast, nutrients, acids ect. ? I have mine all in the freezer not to sure this is the right thing to do.
I store them in anything them in the fridge, except for freeze dried malolactic bacteria, which I store in the freezer. I used to keep my yeast in the freezer and never had any problems but they do not recommend it
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Thanks for the advice
Is there a way to call you? For a few questions?
can i add acid blend in red grape juice? (store bought) thanks
Sure, if it needs it. If it is justice concentrate, you can just add less water to get the acid right, plus get a boost in flavor.
Do you recommend any particular type of acid for traditional meads, or fruit (melomel) meads?
Curious about that as well
Tartaric from my research.
I hope you can help. I just made a Lime must for a Lime wine and when I check the PH, it's coming in at 2.6. At this point, I'm not sure if I should just pitch the yeast (EC1118) or if I should adjust the PH up to around 2.8-2.9. Do you know if EC1118 will work at such a low PH? If not, what should I use to increase the PH? Will Potassium Bicarbonate work, or is something else better?
That's pretty low. I generally don't suggest adding water, but with something like lime, it is probably the best course. You could just dilute it to about 2.9 or 3.0. you will probably want to add a good bit of sugar also. Maybe to about 20 Brix.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Is there any reason I couldn't just use Potassium Bicarbonate? There's two reason I'd rather try this versus adding water. 1 is that I don't have another fermentation bucket to split the must. The 2nd is that I don't want to dilute the lime flavor. I was thinking if I could neutralize the acid, I should be able to add citric acid back in once fermentation was finished.
I have a 3L red grape wine and it's too sweet. Is there any way I can adjust the sweetness?
You can easily make it more sweet but to reduce the sweetness you would need to blend with a dry wine. I recommend doing some test blends in a glass before committing to the entire 3L. Not sure what kind of wine you have but it sounds like maybe a Concord if it comes on 3L. You could blend a dry white with a Concord and generally have good results.
What acid wuld you use for banana wine ?
Just use pectic
What kind of acid would you recommend on a crab apple, cinnamon and clove wine?
I would probably use acid blend (tartaric, malic, and citric) for that. The natural dominant acid will be malic in the crab apples. If you just need to nudge the pH you could use malic. It is a very tart acid so if you add too much it might become a little over powering. I would target a pH around 3 to 3.4 for that wine.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel well since crab apples have more acidity and malic acid than normal apples, I'm thinking maybe I dont even need any acid blends.
I believe Ive ruined (perhaps) 12 gallons of blueberry wine. I'm 2 days into what seems like an otherwise healthy fermentation. Problem is, I used a cheap ph meter and saw last night that it was at 5.49. I wish I had seen this video first. Anyway, I started adding acid blend, to the extent that it was double what the recipe called for before I realized that the meter wasnt really working anyway. I tasted the must this morning and lots of burning on the tongue. I ordered the better meter that you have there. It gets here tomorrow. If it turns out to be too low ph, what can be done? I have some vintners precipitated chalk I never thought I would have to use. Do you have any advice? Sorry, I know that's a lot!
In the event that you have over acidified the wine you will need to bring it the other rest with some potassium bicarbonate. From there you will also need to cold stabilize it, as it will become oversaturated with tartaric acid once the bicarbonate is added. If you don't cold stabilize, you will get a lot of tartrate crystals in the bottle.
I imagine the "chalk" is calcium carbonate, which will also work. It will also need cold stabilized though.
Thank you!!! I will try to rectify this situation upon waking. 😀
hi there, have you ever use potassium carbonate to reduce acidity in wine after the malolactic fermentation? how does it work? i tried adding a little to a glass of wine and the color turned to blue. any clue on this? thank you!
You can do it but I wouldn't recommend any large adjustments. You will want to cold stabilize after adding the potassium bicarbonate or you will get a lot of potassium bitartrate crystals in the bottle. Red wine color comes from anthocyanin which can also act as a pH indicator. It turns pink at low pH, and blue at high pH. I'm guessing a good bit of the acid in your glass was neutralized if it turned blue. You will find that if you add tartaric acid the the wine it will turn neon pink. You can actually do a pretty good job of telling a wines pH range by the color once you see it enough. If you clean up with b-brite which has carbonates in it, the wine will also turn blue.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel thank you very much ! :D
Do you use Calcium Carbonate to low the acidity ? If yes, how many gram per L?
Did you ever find an answer to this question ? Thanks
We just harvested our home vineyard, our PH is 4.0, do we just keep adding acid to get to 3.8ish ? We have 6 gal in a bucket and 4 gal in a bucket
You are going to need a lot of tartaric acid for those grapes, or you can blend with grapes that are a little more acidic. Normally you would want to pick a few days earlier if you can. The pH is going to climb during primary fermentation, then again during malolactic fermentation. So if you start at 3.8 you will end closer to 4 or 4.1. that's not taking into account any potassium that can contribute to even more climb. If you can harvest around 3.4 or 3.5 your are in a good spot but in some climates that is tough. I would probably add acid to about 3.6. Above 3.6, the potassium factor really becomes a problem due to the disassociation constant. Keep an eye on it, because it really might keep wanting to climb on you.
Yes - we got a pound of it yesterday. Thanks
I enjoy these videos, but that intro music is strange.
HI, thank you for your video, you have always been very helpful and responsive to me and I wanted to let you know I very much appreciate all that you do. I have another question: I recently started a batch of cab franc, adjusted my must to TA (7.0) and PH is 3.43. I used GoFerm and 118 yeast and started fermenting. After 9% drop in Brix, added Fermaid K. I am fermenting in my attached garage and I am sensing a strong vinegar-like smell. Everything looks great and everything looks healthy; however, I have this smell and it does not seem right. Any suggestions on what could be wrong -- if anything?
Are you fermenting grapes with skins, or just juice? If you are fermenting grapes with skins, and don't punch down enough, it can get a little vinegary. Make sure to punch down 2-3 times a day and cover with a towel or loose lid. You don't want those skins to dry out. Also make sure to wipe the sides of the bucket or fermenter with a sulfite based sanitizing solution every couple days as the juice splashes. It should smell VERY fruity at this point. Like a blackberry pie. It can sometimes smell a little bready from the yeast also. If you have spilled any juice on the floor or sides of the fermenter, that could be the cause of the smell. Hope this helps!
how would you suggest lowering my ph level in my red wines (cabernet sauvignon and syrah) that has almost finished malolactic fermentation and now reading a ph level of 3.95
At this point I'd let it finish mlf. You can adjust it down with some tartaric acid. I am guessing a good bit will fall out as potassium bitartrate. Sounds like you might have a good bit of potassium in the must. If you can get down to 3.75 or 3.8 it would be acceptable but you wouldn't want to age the wine more than a couple years. You will want some tannin to balance out the lower acid. You can use oak for your tannin or tannin powder or both. Ideally you would want to adjust it a bit before fermentation. Higher above 3.6 that you get, the more it will climb when any acids fall out as insoluble salts. I have a challenging must right now also. I adjusted to 3.6 and am cold stabilizing before mlf. The pH should stay about the same but I will drop the TA substantially and lose a lot of the tartaric that I added. Then I can go through mlf and hopefully it end up around 3.7 or 3.75 depending on how much malic is present. If I cold stabilized when it was already at 3.75 it would climb even higher.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel ok thank you so much. at what rate per gallon should I add the tartaric
3.785 grams/gallon should shift the pH by around 0.1 but it is a pretty loose rule of thumb since there are so many variables involved. You would want to add about half of what you think you need and see how the pH reacts and go from there. Give it about a day before taking the pH reading to let the acids dissolve fully.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel thanks again and I will let you know my results when I can
Think my grapes were not ripe enough, after a month in second fermentation the wine is pretty sour
Unless they are premium wine grapes (vinifera), they will probably need back sweetened to balance out the tart acids.
If grape is full of tartaric acid, why would you add more?
As a grape ripens, the tartaric acid content continues to drop. If the grapes are picked at a point where there is no longer enough acid to balance the wine, you will need to add more. As the pH climbs, the wine will begin to become microbially unstable and taste "flabby", or dull. A pH of 3.8 will taste wildly different from a pH of 3.6 and have about 1/4 the shelf life.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Thanks for the response. I am rookie to wine making. My problem is my homemade wines always taste a bit too sour. What do suggest as a simple/generic approach to reduce sourness? Thanks for the time!
Hello, my wine has pH 2, how do I improve pH up to 3.5? Thanks.
What type of wine is it? Has it already fermented? If so, I would question the accuracy of the pH meter. You can adjust slightly with calcium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate but that is a pretty big jump necessary. If it is a fruit wine, you may need to add a good bit of water and still some potassium bicarbonate. Also a fruit wine can be pretty good in the low 3s.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Hello, It's a Canadian grapes from Niagara region.
The wine is already fermented and I raked it first time and added potassium metabisulfite. I used pH stripes and it shows me 2 or even less and the taste is very sour. Do I need to add some chalk? I've heard about to keep wine outside when the temperature is -5 -0 it will low acidity as well. What do you think? Thanks.
@markstanleywinemaking Thank you!
people to make and drink good wine DO NOT PUT ANY ACID IN IT .... let the nature do her job
Where are you getting your fruit? Most california wines will need a little tartaric acid to come into balance. NY state with the shorter growing season and cooler weather often has too much acid and needs a little potassium bicarbonate. You could pick at a lower pH and higher TA to avoid the need to add acid in the warmer climates but then you are trading off flavor development for acid (which is an easy adjustment). Nature does not necessarily want to make good wine. She wants to ripen a berry enough to make it attractive to a bird who will spread the seed. Any remaining berries are decomposed to water and organic matter, with wine being a very brief stage of that process. If you walk a vineyard a week after harvest it smells mostly like vinegar, acetaldehyde, and ethyl acetate which unfortunately are smells found in a lot of home wines. Wine is naturally very acidic with a pH of around 3.1-3.8 depending on the style. This is around 100 times more acidic than beer which falls in the low fives. Acidity is a key component to what we interpret as "good wine" and critical to a wines longevity. If your fruit is deficient it needs adjusted (with the naturally occurring acid of that fruit). It is really no different than sending a soil out for testing and making amendments if needed. Sure plants will grow in about any soil but the best gardens have good soil.
last 5 years i am getting my grapes from CA and i am very happy with it. I never adjust the acidity always been right on point. I am making nature wines so do not use any chemicals. Back in the days they did not have any of the stuff people put nowadays puts in the wines to make it "better" . Ones you start putting chemicals in the wine you kill the whole profile of it and you do not drink wine anymore. You drink some experiments you make and a little by little you damage your health.
The key to the good wine is the technique you use, the traditions, the good grapes and the love you put in it.... This is all you need to make a real good homemade wine !
Humans have always added things to wine to try to make it better. 8000 years ago they would add tree resin to prolong the longevity. Later they would add lead, lye, ash, or gypsum to alter the wine. Most old world wines were heavily spiced to hide the heavily oxidized flavors. In the mid 1800s, thanks to Louis Pasteur among others we started to get a handle on the science of wine and produce repeatably good wines. A wine doesn't need to have loads of chemicals to be excellent and most don't. This is a common misconception. Everything a winemaker does to "nudge" the wine to a better endpoint can be natural. Tartaric acid is the acid already found in grapes so you are not adding anything new. Sulfur Dioxide is a natural biproduct of alcoholic fermentation. Some yeasts can produce up to 100ppm. Cultured yeasts are just that... They are wild yeasts that we have found to be reliable and are now available to people living in places where those yeasts do not occur in the wild. Wine marketing loves to say that their vineyard is so good that the winemaker didn't have to do anything. This is never the case but makes for a good story. It lays the foundation to say that it is impossible for their neighbor to make good wine because they don't have the same land... But they all say this. Home Winemakers are often overwhelmed by the science and latch on to the "do nothing" method. To truly know if the "do nothing" method is working, you need to not only taste your wine but benchmark against wines regarded as world class to assure that aren't getting used to off flavors. To effectively "do nothing" as the wineries would say, you need an extremely good handle on the science which is what I try to help people with.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel yes ppl add stuff before but from the nature not produced in the labs.... even the grapes has that acid in them and other components they are they naturally there .... everything ppl add nowadays to try balance the wine in anyway and is produced in the labs even if naturally has in it the wine it is still a chemicals no matter what ....i am a 3rd generation winemaker and i am sure i know what i am saying. and for me to drink good wine mean to be natural. try to make a wine wine this and you will be surprise what you are missing if you havent try it of course
I believe it was Romans who used green pine cones for their acid. Am attempting a natural wine using wild captured yeast and a poplar leaf for the acid. This is my first batch as a new home wintermaker and look forward to experimenting with what nature has to offer. If they could make a great wine back them, I imagine it's still possible but through experimentation on my part. Grapes do not grow here so my wines will be with rhubarb and look forward to tasting what nature can do for this fruit.