Volatile Acidity Fixes
TroubleShooting
Mary Rogan — Auckland, New Zealand asks,
Because of travel restrictions over the past few months, I was unable to rack my 2019 (New Zealand) Pinotage from a Speidel plastic fermenter to the stainless container or adequately manage sulfite levels (basically I was unable to travel back from the U.S. to New Zealand until recently). I could taste volatile acidity (VA) and sent the wine off for testing:

I have read that the legal threshold for VA is 0.7 g/L and blending is the best solution. So far, I have added another 1 g/L of tartaric acid and bumped up the sulfite to 75 ppm. Unfortunately, I don’t have any blending wine. It is OK to drink, especially with food, so I am reluctant to dump it. Do you have any suggestions? I don’t normally filter my wines — should I pass through a sterile filter before bottling, any other way to reduce the VA or minimize the sensory impact and can I prevent it deteriorating further?