Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/210765
WINEMAKING The other thing that Domingo Rodriguez of Oenodia (the U.S. branch of Eurodia), Bob Kreisher of Mavrik, Travis Smith of Wine Secrets, Bryan Tudhope of VA Filtration, Stefano Migotto of Winetech and Richard Garzon of Northwest Wine Filtration agree on is that there is precious little interest in pH reduction, though all of them have done the deed on a few occasions. "Demand," says Garzon, "is non-existent." Travis Smith TA and pH: sort of related I n 1980 Roger Boulton of the University of California, Davis, penned an article for the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture. Here's what he had to say: Total acidity is the number of positively charged protons (aka hydrogen ions) that the total of all organic acids (tartaric, malic, lactic, citric, succinic, sulfurous) would contain if they were undissociated (not dissociated into oppositely charged ions). This hypothetical value is calculated by measuring the number of negatively charged anions, translating that into molecules per unit volume, and then multiplying by the number of protons that would be around if the acids were, in fact, completely dissociated. Total acidity is devilishly hard to measure. Instead, winemakers rely on titratable acidity (TA), a measure of the number of protons recovered during a titration with a strong base to a specified pH endpoint. This can also be expressed as a molar weight, finally translated into the familiar grams per liter (though nobody actually weighs out the grams). Titratable acidity is always lower looked back into the customer database and estimated that WineSecrets had done 20 jobs in the past two years, for a total of about 100,000 gallons of wine. At least as of the time of this writing, two of these four service providers don't even list pH adjustment as a service on their websites. Maybe it's the innate conservatism of winemakers. Maybe it's a form of denial about the perils of high pH. Maybe it's a lack of knowledge of methods other than tartaric additions. Maybe enough wineries and consumers just plain like the taste of high-pH wines that they're willing to put up with the numbers. Maybe wineries fear that consumers would find out they actually used a machine to make wine. (After all, one of the companies involved is named WineSecrets.) Years ago Vinovation, a pioneer in the realm of fancy filtration and wine cleanup, threw a party for its customers. Hardly anybody came, for fear of being seen by other wineries. On the pH-reduction front, winemakers don't even seem to be using the service, let alone coming to the party. Tim Patterson is the author of "Home Winemaking for Dummies." He writes about wine and makes his own in Berkeley, Calif. Years of experience as a journalist, combined with a contrarian streak, make him interested in getting to the bottom of wine stories, casting a critical eye on conventional wisdom in the process. than total acidity, because not all the hydrogen ions that might be expected from the acids get recovered on the way to the standard pH endpoint of 8.2. But titratable acidity is much easier to measure. pH, on the other hand, is a calculation of the concentration of free (positive) protons measured on a negative logarithmic scale and then expressed as a positive number. Besides the fact that the pH and titratable acidity scales run in opposite directions (higher acid means lower pH), pH values also register the presence of positively charged alkaline metals—primarily potassium and to a lesser degree, sodium—that is, References things that are not acids at all. T.P. IDL_Dir11 Your lender of choice for agricultural capital. Fixed and adjustable rate mortgage loans © 2013 METLIFE, INC. © '13 PNTS Call your Associate today for competitive financing! Scott Gay Brendan Feder Napa, CA, 707-477-2425 Visalia, CA, 559-312-4437 Josh Gervase Jonathan W. Holbrook Escalon, CA, 209-608-0321 Food & Agribusiness, 559-470-6444 Boulton, Roger. "The Relationships Between Total Acidity, Titratable Acidity and pH in Wine," AJEV, 11/18/10Vol.4:21 PM 1980, pp 1 31, No. 1, Page 76-80. Iván D. Lessner IDL Process Solutions Inc. Process & Product Development Alcoholic & Non Alcoholic Beverage Industry Equipment Sales ■ R. WAGNER: Rapid SO2, TA ■ ERBSLOEH: Fining & Treatment Agents, Yeasts, Enzymes, CelluFluxx (D.E. Replacement) ■ TRUST: Quality Hungarian Oak Barrels & Chips ■ EMD: Reflectoquant Analyzer & Kits Bill Sciacqua Fresno, CA, 559-470-6448 www.metlife.com/ag 34 W in es & V i ne s D EC E M b e r 20 13 Agricultural Investments 1164 Lee Street, White Rock, B.C. V4B 4P4 Canada Phone: (604) 538-2713 Fax: (604) 538-4517 www.idlconsulting.com