Will MLF cure 5.096 TA in white wine must?

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sloanfamilydsm

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Here's the numbers
Espirit grapes grown in central Iowa.
1.071 adjusted to 1.081 chaptalization
3.36 pH
D47 yeast at 58* 25 ppm sulfite
 
Yes... but do you feel its too harsh now and won't age out? Or, is it going to be drunk young? MLF can help some wines, but turn others "flat/flabby" and lifeless.
 
Espirt grapes are cold hardy grapes, many of the cold-hardy cultivars tend to have high titratable acidity (TA) and harvest is delayed to lower the TA.

7.25? this 7.25 g/l? this would be 0.72%, this would actually be in the lower range for this grape since it appears to have been harvested early, a few searches gave me numbers as high as 12.29 g/liter for the first and 9.33 g/liter for the second harvest.

Usually, white wines are not put through MLF, with the exception of a few varieties, you may want to consider back sweetening this wine if it is very harsh, just to offset the acidity instead.

Do not start adding chemicals yet,
Calcium Carbonate is used at the beginning of fermentation, we usually test our must before fermentation and adjust accordingly, balancing the wine after fermentation is a bit harder, but not impossible.

I would ferment and age, I would have used Lalvin yeast 71B-1122, it tends to correct some of the acidity and bring out the fruit flavors.

Let this wine age a few months and test it, if it is very acidic, you can try to back sweeten just enough to offset some of the acidity, or you try to adjust the acidity with potassium bicarbonate, but again...be careful using it, many winemakers have complained about a "salty" taste after using it.

I hope that this helps.

Tom
 
The 7.25TA threw me off as well, I was thinking 7.25% TA and was like holy crap that is extreme.....I totally agree with pumpkin man about harvesting as late as possible in cold regions...get that brix up and you will have really nice sweet grapes, harvest early and you will have tart acidic grapes.
 

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