Bravo for 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 (“on the lab bench”) before performing it on your entire lot, is one of my most oft-repeated mantras. You also followed another of my key winemaking axioms — always let your taste buds be your guide. Yet another nugget of winemaking wisdom I often pass on to readers is to go slowly, do things in stages, and be conservative when making additions to wines that will dramatically change them. Adding acid, as it seems like you’ve found, is one of those things that will change many aspects of a wine, including the taste balance, perceived tartness, color, pH and microbial stability. Speaking of which, I’m glad that you’re aware that a high pH wine is more susceptible to microbial spoilage and that, especially for white wines, a good amount of acid can help a wine age gracefully. Just a little bit can go a long way, however. I would
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