Wine Wizard

Bravo to you for doing bench trials! If you’ve read my columns over the years you know that doing bench trials — that is, testing a wine treatment on a small scale

The pH of these grapes do seem high. For California grapes, I like to see whites in the 3.30–3.45 range and reds in the 3.45–3.65 range when picked. However, many of our

Great topic and great questions. If you’ve read my columns over the years, you’re familiar with my mantra of acid being the “backbone” of wine, as well as the importance of having

Because cantaloupes have high pH, my guess is that the red speckles you’re seeing in a layer on top of your wine are bacteria colonies and no, they are not to be

I applaud you for trying fresh winegrapes in your home winemaking, you’re lucky that you are (relatively) close to a fine winegrape growing area like the Santa Ynez Valley. I grew up

QIn the above situation, what do you suggest I do? Do you agree that I should conduct MLF on my wines considering their high-pH characteristics? AFirst off, glad your Viognier got better!

Absolutely, I would lower your pH prior to aging. No matter how high the TA is, if you’ve got a high pH as well, you are putting your wines at risk for

A Word From the Publisher And the Wine Wizard is……. “When will my fermentation stop?” “Why did my fermentation stop?” One thing I can count on as publisher of WineMaker magazine is

You’re right in assuming that it has something to do with acidity, but the answer you’re looking for is not exactly the presence of an acid but rather the absence of one.

Ask almost any commercial winemaker and they will say that pH is one of the most important – if not the most important – winemaking parameter. Even though TA is important for