kajolo ) wrote:
>Thanks for your explanation, Dave.

>However, it's just not clicking with me.
>Are you saying that up to 70% of a must might be malic acid, and after a
>malolactic fermentation, up to 60% of the malic might be converted to
>lactic?

No. If 70% of your must is acid of ANY sort, quit and go home.
There ain't no wine potential there. And don't splash any on
yourself, for fear it'd burn right through you.

I'm saying that in a cold climate, you might have 10 g/L acid at
harvest, and 7 out of 10 would be malic (adjusted to tartaric
equivalents). So you're starting with 1.0% acidity, and 0.7% malic
acidity.

After ML, you might have 8 g/L or 0.8 % acidity total, and 0.6%
might be malic (6 g/L tartaric equivlents).

So you started out with 7 g/L malic, and ended up with 6 g/L lactic.
You also started out with 1.0% acidity total, and ended up with 0.8%
acidity total.

It makes sense, really.

:-)

>By the way, it's Philip Jackisch that is combining two scales, not me ...
>the two sentences I quoted are on the same page, and no distinction is
>made between what he means by "percent" in the two instances.

Yeah, I'm guessing that he thought would it be clear, but maybe
asssumed too much.

>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>> Malic Acid: "10-40% in warm climate grapes, up to 70% in cool
>climate
>>grapes".
>>
>> Lactic Acid: "Lactic acid is a minor byproduct of fermentation, and
>>usually less than 0.1% is present in wines, but up to 0.6% is produced
>>during a malolactic fermentation."

>>My question:

>>How can malic acid approach 70% of a must, but following a malolactic
>>fermentation the lactic acid only approaches 0.6% ?

>>Thanks!

>I think you're combining two different scales. He's saying that 70%
>of total acidity can be malic in cool regions. He's also saying
>that the total content (as a w/v percentage in wine) of malic in a
>finished wine that has undergone ML can be 0.6%.

>So it's the difference between the amount of an acid as a percent of
>all the acids, and the amount of an acid as a percent of all the
>stuff in the wine altogether.

>Dave



--
Dave
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Dave Breeden