Is acidulation bad?

Recently Alejandro asked me the following, in response to comments of mine in recent WTNs about acidulation in Argentinean wines:

I honestly don’t understand where you are coming from with this concern over acidulation.... are you sure it’s the culprit for everything going wrong in a wine...? I’m not sure we need to blame a tool that’s only part of a toolbox... else, are we just doomed to drink wines that are made from grapes sourced from soils that offer lots natural acidity potential...? Not sure where you are going with all this acidulation issues, it would be great if you could elaborate further.

Since I find this subject utterly fascinating, I thought it deserved a thread of its own, with the hope of attracting comments and information from forum members. Thanks, Alejandro, for prodding me to organize my thoughts, rightly or wrongly, on the subject.

First, the background, as I understand it (please correct me wherever I am wrong). We all know that the unusually hot 2003 vintage in Bordeaux (and elsewhere in Europe) produced many wines high in alcohol and low in acidity. To some degree, this happens every year in Mendoza, where wine is grown on irrigated deserts with hot sunshine, an effect that is relatively stable and predictable. The Andean heat, if you want it to and allow it to, will ripen grapes to the point where they generate wines with high alcohol and low acidity. Picking the grapes earlier would help the wine’s acid/fruit balance, but with consequences deemed undesirable by contemporary market trends. More on this later.

A knowledgeable acquaintance tells me that “Traditionally, there was a point called the ‘industrial’ level at which winemakers considered a grape to be ripe. Essentially, this was the point at which there was equilibrium between the level of sugar and the amount of acidity, and was used to establish the date on which the grapes should be picked. But, then, new studies showed that grapes picked at the industrial level did not have sufficient phenolic maturity (tannins and color) and aromas, resulting in wines that were deficient in this respect. A move towards picking riper grapes emerged, and is now prevalent in almost all wine regions. One of the technical reasons for Michel Rolland’s fame is precisely this: over 30 years ago, he began to pick over ripe grapes in Bordeaux in order to produce 'better' wine. In the preface to the Larousse wine guide, Michel Rolland describes how he noticed that wines tasted better in dryer years because, in these years, growers did not rush to pick as soon as industrial maturity occurred, letting grapes hang a little while longer. The sun in Argentina, and parts of Australia, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, is such that over ripe grapes have much more sugar (14 - 15% potential alcohol) and lose much more acidity (sunshine reduces malic acidity). Wines in regions such as Alsace and Germany are, also, almost always made from very ripe grapes, but the climate is colder, so wines become less alcoholic and retain their characteristic natural acidity.”

If you're a winemaker and want to make an "international style" wine, there are many techniques for doing so AFTER the grapes are picked: microxigenation, concentrators, yeasts, enzymes, tannin additives, new oak with different toast levels, acidulation, over-extraction, heated maceration, dialysis, reverse osmosis... But practically the only technique available BEFORE picking is over-ripening. But this can be risky in Bordeaux and Burgundy, exposing the crops to hail, rain and rot, so these places, it stands to reason, would favor techniques applied after picking. In contrast, there is little risk in picking grapes at full phenolic ripeness in places with relatively stable and predictable climates, like Mendoza. As a result, in most vintages, the vast majority of Argentinean wines need to be acidulated (the addition of a certain amount of tartaric acid, an amount that has to take into account that malolactic fermentation reduces the overall level of acidity when it converts malic acid into lactic acid). Only in the very highest vineyards is the cold such that a measure of acidity remains, one of the reasons why there is a positive correlation in Mendoza between wine quality and vineyard altitude. In his piece “Argentinean Wines: An Emerging Force,” Jay Miller quotes winemaker Paul Hobbs as saying that 2006 was the first vintage “in which he did not have to acidify (acidulation is almost universally done here).” Perhaps this was a mistake: the 2006 Viña Cobos Benteveo Chardonnay that I posted on last week was full of gorgeous fruit, but completely flaccid from lack of acidity. But I digress, perhaps.

So, many observers agree that, today, grapes are picked when overly mature, with the objective of producing smoother, earlier drinking wines. The problem is when, to achieve this smoothness, you gain alcohol and lose acidity and aromatic freshness. These “big” wines, full of fruit jam, are now found everywhere (many, of course, are wonderful). Nicolas Joly recently told an interviewer: “Did you know that research has made available, to winemakers, yeasts that generate specific characteristics? Everyone who makes wine knows that if you use BDX in a cabernet you will get intense aromas of red fruit jam and a stronger tannic structure. On the other hand, if you use GRE, you will be favoring aromatic freshness and red fruit flavors. D21 will inhibit herbaceous aromas, and so on… You make exactly the wine you want and not the wine that the soil gives you. So, it is not surprising that all wines now taste the same.”

Young wines can give immense amounts of pleasure, but many believe that only slow maturation brings about the most exquisite pleasures to be had from wine. Will these fruit bombs last? Possibly, but I would wager that there is a Faustian pact at work here, forfeiting a longer future in exchange for a shooting star present. My problem is not so much with acidulation per se. Unlike some other techniques in the toolbox, it seems to be a necessary evil, and was sorely missed in the Benteveo mentioned above. My problem (to the extent I have one) is with the cause of acidulation, the thing to which acidulation points: the picking of over ripe grapes, which elevates alcohol levels, mitigates varietal differences, and reduces the role of terroir. While Chile holds a commanding lead over Argentina in terms of making wines without character for the export market, over the last few years, possibly as a result of the immense domestic difficulties in Argentina, more and more Argentinean producers seem intent, wittingly or unwittingly, on emulating the Chilean export model with wines made from over ripe grapes. I am a big fan of the idea of idiosyncratic Argentinean wine (and Argentina in general), and will continue to try all producers in the search for those with (what I call) character. They don’t have to be small – Laura Catena’s Luca Pinot Noir has lots of it. While there is definitely a place for competent wine made by mass producers like Terrazas, from my personal point of view, life’s simply too short. Despite the growth of the international style, there remains enough wine with personality from all over the world that I am dying to taste.

Oswaldo
A fairly simplistic view from someone who likes wine, but is no expert on the process...

Wines for me need decent acid balance, at least through the period immediately preceeding (and including) maturity. Wines without sufficient acidity (or with an imbalance of too much acidity) don't work. It's not precise for me and in general there's a decent amount of leeway for my palate.

So, to add acid or not. My (limited) understanding, is that there's acid and there's acid. If the acid is extracted from grape juice (and that it's a fair match for the wine), then I'm led to believe it's likely not to get spotted as added. Quite what options are open I'm not sure.

I'm sure it goes against the concept of terroir, but then so does chaptalisation and many more perfectly acceptable winemaking techniques. I don't feel beholden to terroir, but I do like honesty in claims (i.e. I think Penfolds were wrong in moving their Bin 28 Kalimna wine from a vineyard specific wine to a regional blend - without dropping the Kalimna name).

but I digressed...

A good quandary to pose

regards

Ian

Very interesting! I've been making wine from locally grown grapes at home for many years. I live in a Northern climate and most of the time I have the opposite problem, with grapes being too high in acid. However, 2007 was an exception. The Chardonnay and Gamay were both deficient in acid and I had to add a bit of tartaric to get them to taste right. I don't think acidulation is any worse than adding carbonates to reduce adidity. However, it seems to me that whenever I have to make adjustments for acidity, the wine is just not as good as when the grapes obtain the correct balance on their own. Thanks for posting this Oswaldo. I enjoyed reading it.

To put it more simply than Ian has, in many quarters of the wine producing world, it's been a long-standing accepted phenomenon that higher latitude and even higher altitude produce the less flabby wines. With that in mind, if grapes are grown in a location that makes it necessary to make regular annual adjustments to produce a specific wine profile, then maybe vineyard location or wine marketing needs changing.

Certainly, there are anomalous years, and for that every wine producer needs a tool box--acid is one of the tools.

Most winemakers likely use tartaric acid which is extracted from grapes. It isn't easy for an untrained palate to detect when tartaric has been added--it's usually easier to detect when citric is added, although I don't think that happens much these days in premium wine.

I don't think tartaric acid is necessarily terroir-driven (that is an opinion based on experience, not a scientific fact) therefore, I can't see how adding tartaric has much affect on the elusive "terroir," provided the other elements that carry the components that we describe as terroir-driven are not also deficient (tannic structure, those earth tones that we can't pin down, etc.).

In my view, instead of tartaric acid additions, high alcohol (and malolactic fermentation) may have a better shot at obscuring terroir, as does Brett, which some producers claim is "terroir!"

Very interesting! I've been making wine from locally grown grapes at home for many years. I live in a Northern climate and most of the time I have the opposite problem, with grapes being too high in acid. However, 2007 was an exception. The Chardonnay and Gamay were both deficient in acid and I had to add a bit of tartaric to get them to taste right. I don't think acidulation is any worse than adding carbonates to reduce adidity. However, it seems to me that whenever I have to make adjustments for acidity, the wine is just not as good as when the grapes obtain the correct balance on their own. Thanks for posting this Oswaldo. I enjoyed reading it.

Howie,

When do you make the acid addition? Before or after fermentation?

Howie,
When do you make the acid addition? Before or after fermentation?

Since adding acid is new to me, I actually made the mistake of waiting until just before bottling, when I tasted it. However, at least for the Gamay, I should have added it before fermentation, as the pigmentation all fell out of solution and I ended up with a rosé instead of a red. I had read articles regarding pH and pigmentation, but I learned by experience. It still tastes nice (at least I like it). I don't think it mattered that much with the Chardonnay that I added it before bottling.

Howie,
When do you make the acid addition? Before or after fermentation?

Since adding acid is new to me, I actually made the mistake of waiting until just before bottling, when I tasted it. However, at least for the Gamay, I should have added it before fermentation, as the pigmentation all fell out of solution and I ended up with a rosé instead of a red. I had read articles regarding pH and pigmentation, but I learned by experience. It still tastes nice (at least I like it). I don't think it mattered that much with the Chardonnay that I added it before bottling.

If you can, it is a good idea to add before fermentation. There's better integration that way, plus you can use the proper acidity to better maintain the wine during racking, etc., as the acidity should lower the pH. If you miss the mark, you can always add a touch more later.

If you add just before bottling you not only have a pigmentation problem but also a precipitation of acid in the bottle.

The reality of winemaking (and viticulture) is that wine is a manipulated product. Perhaps the ideal is to produce wine that has had as little "intervention" as possible, but that's a very loaded term that can be interpreted many different ways.

Judicious addition of tartaric acid can be a wise move in terms of stability and balance and is a practice more wide-spread than I think most wine lovers realise. When it's done well, I'm not convinced even the most experienced tasters can pick out an acidified wine. The problem is that a lot of wine's aren't acidified "appropriately". As Thomas said, acidifying before fermentation is absolutely preferrable as the acid integrates into the wine better, as well as the fact that adding acid prior to fermentation may be required for biological stability pre-fermentation/pre-bottling). This means winemakers have to make a prediction about where the pH is headed post-fermentation, post-MLF and post-cold stability (where relevant). Often winemakers get it wrong. IMO, for example, in climates such as California and South Australia winemakers often focus too much attention on the pH shift (they are adding tartaric in order to get the pH down to a level deemed suitable for biological, colour, etc stability) to the detriment of quite high acidity in the final product (i.e., they neglect the taste issue in favour of the stability issue). This is all more likely when working with grapes that are so ripe the must pH is very high, requiring the addition of significant acid to lower the pH. The higher pH and riper phenolics tend to mean smoother wine, but the higher acidity can mean increased palate harshness (especially when compounded by high alcohol and high tannin content). This all means there's a balancing issue that can be hard to get right.

From the last time we spoke of this:

"As for the topic of adding acid, I don't see an issue with it. If too much acid has to be added, The wine will never come out right. I believe a flaw would definitely be detected. I don't technically know where this line is drawn, but I could probably detect it if it was there, or so I think.

I'm guessing by the context that "spoofulation" has to do with manipulating the wine. With very few exceptions, I'm not sure you could make wine with absolutely NO manipulating. I mean, even putting wine into an oak barrel manipulates the wine to some degree. So where is the line drawn on manipulation? I would say everyone has there own line drawn in the sand as to where the manipulation works and doesn't work.

Bottom line, if in the end, the wine is good, then what harm did the whatever degree of manipulation do?"

Thought this relevant to the thread here.

Mark

Here is my take on acidification (or acidulation).

For the making of industrial wines made to Marketing Department specifications aimed to sell at a defined price point, acidification is a legitimate part of a bag of tricks which also amongst other things encompasses –
- Chaptalisation
- Irrigation
- Synthetic yeasts
- Oak chips and staves (indeed barrique ageing conceived as a flavouring additive)
- Spinning cones
- Reverse osmosis

The interesting question for members of this Board is how far these techniques are desirable for the making of wines of the sort which interest us, i.e. wines of individual character, terroir wines or whatever you want to call them (let me call them “art wines”). Here I think that all the above, with the exception of synthetic yeasts and oak chips/staves, have a place provided they are used sparingly and with discretion.

In some parts of the world wine production is impossible without acidification and irrigation, yet the best producers manage to produce art wines which use both skilfully and unobtrusively. Similarly, until the 90s, there were very few Bordeaux and Burgundies which were not chaptalised and that did not prevent some very great wines being made.

However, I would hate to see acidification and irrigation becoming generalised practices in the French, German and Northern Italian vineyards, although I think that some 2003s, for example, would have benefited from both (indeed some did). However there is the cautionary tale of some Burgundian vignerons who acidified the musts only to find that after fermentation the grapes had released unsuspected acidity to the extent the wine then needed to be de-acidified.

The problem is that many makers of supposedly art wines in France and elsewhere seem also to be tempted by abusive use of the industrial bag of tricks, in particular as Oswaldo says by over-acidification to compensate for over-ripeness, tending towards a standardised international taste when coupled with lavish oaking. Unfortunately they often get rewarded for these efforts by rave reviews and high ratings from some of the leading wine critics together with high prices.

Luckily, for the time being, there still exists a plethora of interesting producers, often selling at quite modest prices, who use available techniques with discretion and continue to produce wines full of character.

I have no problem with acidification, just correcting the wines TA (total acid). In the case of “industrial” wines” or “mass produced” wines where both acidification and “enriching” or “stretching” the wine now becomes an issue, that’s a different story. (Not much different from home-made batches of “second-run” (give-away) wines, where water, sugar, and acid are added to the pomace after the “free-run” is removed. (However with concentrates and juices getting better, “second-run” wines are no longer considered “give-away” batches).

Salute

I have no problem with acidification, just correcting the wines TA (total acid). In the case of “industrial” wines” or “mass produced” wines where both acidification and “enriching” or “stretching” the wine now becomes an issue, that’s a different story. (Not much different from home-made batches of “second-run” (give-away) wines, where water, sugar, and acid are added to the pomace after the “free-run” is removed. (However with concentrates and juices getting better, “second-run” wines are no longer considered “give-away” batches).

Salute

The larger question is: when did the word acidify (acidification) morph into acidulate (acidulation)? I've never heard use of the latter until recently.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies.

IMO, for example, in climates such as California and South Australia winemakers often focus too much attention on the pH shift (they are adding tartaric in order to get the pH down to a level deemed suitable for biological, colour, etc stability) to the detriment of quite high acidity in the final product (i.e., they neglect the taste issue in favour of the stability issue). This is all more likely when working with grapes that are so ripe the must pH is very high, requiring the addition of significant acid to lower the pH. The higher pH and riper phenolics tend to mean smoother wine, but the higher acidity can mean increased palate harshness (especially when compounded by high alcohol and high tannin content). This all means there's a balancing issue that can be hard to get right.

Yes, this gets to the heart of the issue I was raising. The balancing issue results from wanting a result that nature is not prepared to give you “naturally” (and the fact that nobody can define “naturally” in winemaking to everyone’s satisfaction does not, I don’t think, diminish this point). The fruit we buy today at the supermarket is genetically manipulated (i.e., not natural, by most definitions) to withstand travel and, in many cases, become seedless (i.e., sterile). This is also a balancing act because such fruit becomes less flavorful, but we still buy it. But we may be less demanding with our fruit than we are with our wine…

I would hate to see acidification and irrigation becoming generalised practices in the French, German and Northern Italian vineyards, although I think that some 2003s, for example, would have benefited from both (indeed some did).

The problem is that many makers of supposedly art wines in France and elsewhere seem also to be tempted by abusive use of the industrial bag of tricks, in particular as Oswaldo says by over-acidification to compensate for over-ripeness, tending towards a standardised international taste when coupled with lavish oaking. Unfortunately they often get rewarded for these efforts by rave reviews and high ratings from some of the leading wine critics together with high prices.

Ditto!

The title of my thread was a bit of a red herring and, on reflection, misleading. It was not so much my intention to raise the manipulation issue, already amply covered, or question morally or esthetically whether a specific tool is good or bad. I am worried about a possible Faustian pact: the sacrificing of a long and complex future that we know, for sure, that good grapes picked at the equilibrium level are capable of providing, in exchange for the market-driven, early gratification wines made from over mature grapes with an untested ageing curve. I am worried that increasingly warm summers will only exacerbate this tendency to produce overripe wines with high alcohol (everywhere, not just in the Andes). The growing need for acidulation is just a barometer, a sign that something may be increasingly rotten in the kingdom of Denmark. I wanted to draw attention to acidulation in order to point my finger at the real lament, the picking of overripe grapes to satisfy contemporary palates. Why I didn’t just do so in the first place is beyond me! At least it’s a guarantee that I am not genetically manipulated to always express myself with the utmost clarity.

The title of my thread was a bit of a red herring and, on reflection, misleading. It was not so much my intention to raise the manipulation issue, already amply covered, or question morally or esthetically whether a specific tool is good or bad. I am worried about a possible Faustian pact: the sacrificing of a long and complex future that we know, for sure, that good grapes picked at the equilibrium level are capable of providing, in exchange for the market-driven, early gratification wines made from over mature grapes with an untested ageing curve. I am worried that increasingly warm summers will only exacerbate this tendency to produce overripe wines with high alcohol (everywhere, not just in the Andes). The growing need for acidulation is just a barometer, a sign that something may be increasingly rotten in the kingdom of Denmark. I wanted to draw attention to acidulation in order to point my finger at the real lament, the picking of overripe grapes to satisfy contemporary palates. Why I didn’t just do so in the first place is beyond me! At least it’s a guarantee that I am not genetically manipulated to always express myself with the utmost clarity.

Yes, Oswaldo, a different subject altogether, which I covered in one sentence in my first post:

"...if grapes are grown in a location that makes it necessary to make regular annual adjustments to produce a specific wine profile, then maybe vineyard location or wine marketing needs changing."

I am worried about a possible Faustian pact: the sacrificing of a long and complex future that we know, for sure, that good grapes picked at the equilibrium level are capable of providing, in exchange for the market-driven, early gratification wines made from over mature grapes with an untested ageing curve....I wanted to draw attention to acidulation in order to point my finger at the real lament, the picking of overripe grapes to satisfy contemporary palates.

And this, to me, is the heart of the matter: As much as we might wish it otherwise, wine is made to be sold and drunk. I cannot fault winemakers for wanting to make wines that people will buy and drink. We have to remember that those of us who think of wine as "art" (useful term! Thank you!) are a tiny, tiny minority of wine drinkers. Don't get me wrong: I believe every bottle should be an adventure, and I think that when a wine is made in such a way that it is always uniform, it sort of stops being wine, and becomes just another beverage. But it is also unfair, I think, to impugn a winemaker for trying to make something that people want to drink.

There is no resolution to this quandary, which is what makes it an evergreen topic among wine drinkers.

Tim:

What the hell is a "synthetic yeast"?

Tim:

What the hell is a "synthetic yeast"?

Did Tim use that term? I missed that--glad you caught it, 'cause I'd like to know what it is, too.

My guess is they are talking about laboratory selected yeasts.

I think it's OK in most states between consenting adults

Tim:

What the hell is a "synthetic yeast"?

Apologies if I have chosen an inaccurate word in searching for one, in opposition to natural yeasts from the vineyard, to encapsulate the following -

Nicolas Joly recently told an interviewer: “Did you know that research has made available, to winemakers, yeasts that generate specific characteristics? Everyone who makes wine knows that if you use BDX in a cabernet you will get intense aromas of red fruit jam and a stronger tannic structure. On the other hand, if you use GRE, you will be favoring aromatic freshness and red fruit flavors. D21 will inhibit herbaceous aromas, and so on… You make exactly the wine you want and not the wine that the soil gives you. So, it is not surprising that all wines now taste the same.”

How would you describe such yeasts in one word? Unnatural? Extraneous?

Most of the yeast strains used by winemakers were isolated from nature, or selected from nature.

Salute

Most of the yeast strains used by winemakers were isolated from nature, or selected from nature.

Salute

But the ones I am seeking to describe are those which are not natural to the vineyards where the grapes are grown and may, in effect, be being used as a flavouring additive.

Yeast selection and then laboratory breeding is no different then selected the best suited clone for a specific vineyard site.

Salute

Last night I had a Chilean pinot (about to post notes) that boasts, as a selling point, the use of wild yeasts. The producers in question - Errazuriz - presumably think that more than a handful of geeks would care about this. Promising!

Also, last night I read something that cheered me, written by the owner of a Brazilian wine store: "During a recent trip ... I was able to once again confirm that there is a clear trend throughout the winemaking world in the direction of elegance, after many years in which concentration, body, color and high alcohol were key. (...) Now that the "wave" is passing, producers are beginning to better control the maturing process in order to avoid overly mature grapes that result in excessively alcoholic wines. The trend is beginning to affect even those New World countries like Argentina and Australia that have always produced very concentrated wines with high alcohol." Coming from someone who otherwise touts Parker and WS scores ad nauseam, this is also promising.