Hi Charles

Sounds like you are also in Niagara.

I am planning to pick my Baco soon. They still look healthy and they look
ready. I have been waiting as Bill suggested to pick them as late as
possible to help decrease the acid and maybe raise the brix a bit. But in
the end I think they will be similar acid readings to what you have.

There have been a lot of good discussions on acid reduction techniques on
this forum. I am thinking of using Potassium carbonate or Potassium
bicarbonate. I don't have any experience with either I usually accept the
acid, adjust the brix and blend appropriately later.

But I have heard that potassium precipitates easier than calcium carbonate
after cold stabilization.

Bill has a wealth of experience with Baco and I think he suggested acid
reduction techniques in an earlier post.

Joe

"Charles" wrote in message
...
William Frazier wrote:

Joe - I try to let the Bacos hang until the brix is around 24 and TA is
1.00% or below.
By the time they get to 24 brix some berries are falling off the
clusters so
I pick. I
would like to let them go so TA falls but they are very soft and some
raisins start to
form. I don't believe I've ever picked below 0.9% TA. It's always a
struggle to end up with a Baco wine with acid in the 0.6 to 0.7% TA
range, but that's the way Baco goes here in the KC area. I get quite a
lot
of acid
precipitating out during fermentation and cold conditioning so these
grapes
must have
a lot of tartaric.

Have you ever used calcium carbonate to reduce acid?

My Baco I purchased this year came in at Brix: 20.2, pH: 3.22, acid:
14.2

Of course I'm planing MLF for it... hopefully that has an affect, as
it's tart right now.


--
charles

"Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were
forced to live on nothing but food and water for days."
- W.C. Fields