My first batch of wine from grapes

[Twkundrat]

Well as the title says, I'm making my first wine from some grapes I got locally in southern Arizona. I'm just doing two one gallon batches to learn what I'm doing. One batch is Cabernet Sauvignon and the other is Petite Sirah.
Things got off to a good start when the guy who had the grapes listed for sale on Craigslist didn't even charge us anything when we had our buckets full. He said he knew he wouldn't get to harvesting all of them so they would just go to the birds anyway.
Harvest/crush day was 8/16. The starting point was:

Cabernet
SG: 1.098 at 78 degrees
pH: 3.24
TA: 7

Petite Sirah
SG: 1.089
pH: 3.28
TA: 8.5

They ended up in the primary fermenter bucket for 7 days before pressing on 8/23. After pressing I ended up at:

Cabernet:
SG: .996
pH: 3.72
TA: 6.5

Petite Sirah:
SG: .998
pH: 3.87
TA: 8.2

I was surprised to end up with such a high pH when it started out fairly low. I don't know if there's anything I should be doing at this point to adjust anything. I've read that if the TA is high then you should probably just live with an unstable high pH wine.

I racked the wine off the gross lees 2 days after pressing and topped up the jugs and added the malolactic culture on 8/28 (as soon as my local home brewing shop had it in stock). Now I have the wine in my wine cooler at 65 degrees for a month or however long it takes for mlf to finish. I figured I'd rack it and add a campden tablet at that point.

I basically just wanted to see if there's anything I should be doing different right now or if I'm on the right track. Thanks for any input.

-Tim

 

[Johnd]

Take the wine out of your cooler, and allow it to go through MLF at room temps (mid 70’s °F), things will progress much faster if the other parameters are in line.

Unless you heated and degassed your samples before doing pH and TA tests, they are probably off. The presenc3 of CO2 in the wine will distort pH readings, which also aff3cts your TA titration.
Not impossible, but unlikely, that the pH would change that dramatically during AF, and the TA would increase on one wine, while decreasing in the other. With pH’s in the 3.7 / 3.8 range, I’d not expect high TA’s.
Is your meter a decent one? Recently calibrated with fresh solutions at both 4.01 and 7.0? Old NaOH can cause issues with TA, are your titration chems fresh?

Lastly, once you are comfy with your numbers, remember that it’s about taste, not numbers. Do your bench trials with acid or k-bicarb, and make the best wine you can. pH and TA will be what they will be, don’t fear an “unstable high pH wine”. Many of us here have wines just above or below pH 4.0 and they’re just fine, proper sulfite management til you get bottled isn’t that difficult. Many commercial wines, very highly rated and expensive, share this trait.

 

[Twkundrat]

Thanks for the response Johnd. The reason I stuck the wine in the cooler is because it's pretty expensive to cool my house to the mid 70's this time of year. Is 80 degrees too hot? I suppose I can stick it in the bedroom and run my window ac to get down in the mid 70's. Hopefully we'll be getting out of the triple digit temps before long anyway.
You asked if my pH meter is a decent one. If you mean a $12 crappy Chinese one then yup, that's the one! I just bought the titration chems a couple of weeks ago but who knows how long they were on the shelf at the home brew shop.

 

[Johnd]

Thanks for the response Johnd. The reason I stuck the wine in the cooler is because it's pretty expensive to cool my house to the mid 70's this time of year. Is 80 degrees too hot? I suppose I can stick it in the bedroom and run my window ac to get down in the mid 70's. Hopefully we'll be getting out of the triple digit temps before long anyway.
You asked if my pH meter is a decent one. If you mean a $12 crappy Chinese one then yup, that's the one! I just bought the titration chems a couple of weeks ago but who knows how long they were on the shelf at the home brew shop.

MLF will be pretty slow at those temps, 80’s are too high IMHO, mid 70’s seems to be the sweet spot if you can manage it.

If your meter is suspect, you’ll just have to let your taste buds guide you for bench trials, which you should do anyway. If you decide to get a quality meter, it will allow you to proceed with more confidence and manage sulfite more appropriately.

 

[Twkundrat]

I suppose I'll go ahead and move the wine into the bedroom and try to keep it in the mid 70's until MLF is done. I'm sure I'll end up buying a decent quality pH meter before too long also. Thanks again for the info Johnd.

 

[Rice_Guy]

first, Welcome to WMT

* the numbers look good, yes it might be nice to have sirah with a lower TA, but coming from a northern hybrid reference I wouldn’t complain.
* it is interesting to see that much pH increase, I expect that off primary it has decreased due to a high level of CO2 , and when bottled at a year it will be in the range where you are. I have wondered what the chemistry of this is? malic metabolism by your yeast? Best guess is an alcohol effect since I see it in country wines, @sour_grapes any ideas?

keep us posted.

 

[Kraffty]

Welcome to WMT, another Arizona winemaker! Best of luck with your AZ grapes, high acidity seems to be a common trait around here, look forward to hearing how they work out for you. I'm doing CA grapes again this year but maybe we can share sources for next year.
Mike

 

[Twkundrat]

Once again I appreciate all the input. So from the sounds of it, it seems that I should just let things be for a while. No need for any drastic corrective actions. Maybe just a little tweaking later on.
Mike, I'm not sure if the guy I got the grapes from this year will have any next year. I believe he is trying to sell the property (If anyone is interested in buying a house with an established vineyard in rural southern Arizona I can pass along his info). If he doesn't have anything available I'd definitely be interested in finding another grape source.