MLF question 9

My experiences are from Pennsylvania, working with likely very similar grape varieties : Chambourcin, De Chanauc, Foch, Cabernet Franc, Florental. And I still can't agree that cold stabilization is a significant acid decrease, at least in my winemaking setup, to justify the effort and risk. If I made wine in a garage or barn, where I could just open the door, I might plan for that 0.05% TA decrease I could get from cold stabilization.

But, I like to plan on my acid reduction plan earlier. If I've got a TA above 0.90, I'm going to plan on doing an acid reduction with potbuttium bicarbonate to get down to around 0.85 TA, from where I hope the MLF will get me right into the range I'm looking for.

Desired acidity ranges for dry red wines are 0.65 - 0.75, a whole 0.10 % TA range. So any adjustment you can make with cold stabilization is going to be less than even the accepted variation in desired TA in dry red wines, while a MLF or acceptable leves of reduction with potbuttium bicarbonate can lower TA by up to 0.20%, twice that variation.

So, I don't agree that the 0.05% acid reduction will make a big difference in the taste. Instead, it will make a difference in the taste less than half the normal variation in acidity within dry red wines, which for me does not qualify as big. You might instead be trying to say that you like your wine spot-on with respect to acidity, and I respect that, but there are easier ways to get this modest decrease in acid reduction without unduly affecting the wine (again, from my own taste buds, and yours may vary).

I do agree with that cold stabilization allows you to be more accurate about the acidity your wine will end up with after being in the bottle a while. But, even there it's not so accurate. I can't control the weather, so if I'm cold stabilizing by moving my carboy outside, temperatures may be such that I don't get complete tartrate precipitation, so there may still be some sediment thrown in the bottle.

I don't want to throw cold water, so to speak, on your cold stabilization --- I'm happy you enjoy doing it, and glad you get an acid reduction out of it that you feel is important in your wines. However, the two 5-gallon batch attempts that I made a cold stabilization, while they did realize some modest acid reduction (0.04 for the Chambourcin and 0.05 for the De Chanauc), just didn't seem worth the effort, especially when I ended up needing to complete the acid reduction with potbuttium bicarbonate anyways.

Jon Check out my winemaking homepage