Anyway.....after bottling in May, the TA is 8.75. I'll drink it (cause I
made it)....but it's a little nippy!

Questions:

1) Is there a chance the wine will settle to a lower TA over time?
To learn from mistakes, I want to address the TA issue next year right up
front:
2) Has anyone used chemical methods to lower the TA at crush (or soon
after)? If so, what do you recommend? Any down side to this?

Absolutely; lower it at crush. I doubt it will ever come around on
it's own but you can certainly lower it now with Potassium Bicarbonate
(or Carbonate if that is available). Cold stabilizing would help too,
can you get it to 25F? If not 40 F for a month or so may work too if
you seed it. You treat it warm, then cool it to drop the tartrates.

I use calcium carbonate on hybrids at crush. I figure out how much I
need, segregate 40% of the must and add all the calcium carbonate to
it. It foams and turns black and is revolting looking. That glop goes
back into the rest, (leaving the sediment behind).

I really don't like reds much above 6g/l; I have a Chancellor that is
drinkable now from 97, if the acid were lower it would be perfect. I
bottled it at 7.5 g/l TA....

Joe