Hi Charles

Sounds like you are also in Niagara.

I am planning to pick my Baco soon. They still look healthy and they look
ready. I have been waiting as Bill suggested to pick them as late as
possible to help decrease the acid and maybe raise the brix a bit. But in
the end I think they will be similar acid readings to what you have.

There have been a lot of good discussions on acid reduction techniques on
this forum. I am thinking of using Potassium carbonate or Potassium
bicarbonate. I don't have any experience with either I usually accept the
acid, adjust the brix and blend appropriately later.

But I have heard that potassium precipitates easier than calcium carbonate
after cold stabilization.

Bill has a wealth of experience with Baco and I think he suggested acid
reduction techniques in an earlier post.

Joe

"Charles" > wrote in message
...
> William Frazier wrote:
>
> > Joe - I try to let the Bacos hang until the brix is around 24 and TA is
> > 1.00% or below.
> > By the time they get to 24 brix some berries are falling off the
clusters so
> > I pick. I
> > would like to let them go so TA falls but they are very soft and some
> > raisins start to
> > form. I don't believe I've ever picked below 0.9% TA. It's always a
> > struggle to end up with a Baco wine with acid in the 0.6 to 0.7% TA
> > range, but that's the way Baco goes here in the KC area. I get quite a
lot
> > of acid
> > precipitating out during fermentation and cold conditioning so these
grapes
> > must have
> > a lot of tartaric.
>
> Have you ever used calcium carbonate to reduce acid?
>
> My Baco I purchased this year came in at Brix: 20.2, pH: 3.22, acid:
> 14.2
>
> Of course I'm planing MLF for it... hopefully that has an affect, as
> it's tart right now.
>
>
> --
> charles
>
> "Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were
> forced to live on nothing but food and water for days."
> - W.C. Fields