Thanks for the reality check Bill. The grapes were grown in the
Palisade, Colorado...our major grape growing region in CO. It's a high
desert region, where most vinyards are 4,500 - 6,000 feet above sea
level. They grow a great Syrah here, but most of the growers were
overcommited on it this year, so I had to settle w/ Merlot.


William Frazier wrote:
> I agree David...pH at 3.70 before fermentation is too high when you plan on
> ML fermentation also. The ML will raise pH by about 0.2 pH units. This
> will make it hard to protect the wine with SO2. You could consider adding
> tartaric acid to lower the pH to 3.40 - 3.45 before fermentation. Plan on
> doing a hard cold condition after all fermentation is complete which should
> drop a lot of excess K bitartrate out of the wine. Not sure about
> maceration at 50F for 10 hours. My guess is it wasn't long enough to drop
> much acid out of solution. BTW, were these Merlot grown in Colorado and if
> so where?
>
> Bill Frazier
> Olathe, Kansas USA
>
> "David D." > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> > Hello, I just ran the numbers for Colorado Merlot I got in yesterday.
> >
> > Sugar: 23.5 Brix (Refactive Index, calibrated w/ distilled water to
> > 0.0)
> > pH: 3.70 (Meter calibrated to 4.01)
> > Acid: 6.8% (NaOH Titration method using a pH meter to determine the
> > endpoint, meter calibrated to 7.01)
> > Sample Temperatu 65F
> > Pick Date: 10/10/2006
> > Crush Date: 10/11/2006
> > Maceration: 10 hours at 50F prior to sampling
> >
> > I'm not comfortable w/ the pH, esp since I plan on doing MLF, but the
> > Acid looks good. What do you guys think: close enough go forward w/
> > fermentation, or add acid to bring the pH down to 3.5ish? Also, does
> > the maceration time affect the numbers? Thanks! -David
> >