Hidden in a glass of wine are secrets of the winemaker and with a little understanding of the process, someone, with interest in the aroma's and taste's of wine, can start to explore the winemakers secrets.
There are many compounds that winemakers use to attain a certain profile or consistency in their wines.
This of course is in addition to the variables brought on by Mother Nature, such as the soil, temperatures, and rain.
So, to get the consistency of a wine that customers have grown to like and expect from one vintage to another, the winemaker takes what Mother Nature give them and adjust the wine to get a consistent profile for which a wine is known.
A lot of the tools available are such things as yeasts, blending and acids.
Acid is probably a misnomer for the average person.
The word "acid" conjures up things that are harmful and akin to industrial cleaners.
Technically, and I am not a chemist, acids are a way of defining the pH level of a solution containing levels of hydrogen ions.
Acid in foods are a scientific category of certain compounds, like critic acid in orange juice.
In wine there are probably some specific acids that are needed to balance wine in order to get the desired profiles in various styles of wine: tannic acid, tartaric acid, malic acid, citric acid and lactic acid.
Like the buttery mouth feel from a nice chardonnay; coming from malolactic fermentation which turns malic acid to lactic acid.
One last point: if you ever owned a pool you will instantly understand the importance of proper pH which is the reading derived from-you got it- acids.
So let's focus on tartaric acid for this discussion because it is the most ubiquitous acid in the winemakers' bag of tricks and it is all natural.
In a given wine the profiles can be tweaked by such things as: the oak properties of a barrel, time in the barrel, vineyard management skills, how long the juice is in contact with the skin of the grape, and blending with different grape varietals.
But, another all natural tweaking process utilizes tartaric acid or malic acid to adjust the acid levels in wine.
The great thing about the tartaric acid compound is that it is 100% natural and is a compound naturally found in grapes.
Tartaric is the largest selling product to wineries but the winemaker always has some degree of bias in how they use any product to adjust the acid levels in wine.
" Interestingly, grapes harvested for wine are also harvested for the manufacture of tartaric acid.
Bottom line, not all wine grapes go for that favorite bottle of wine.
Big producers of tartaric acid source the grapes grown in Italy, France, South America and Australia.
Today the Chinese have a synthetic tartaric product that is mostly used for commercial applications such as cosmetics, building industry and manufacturing.
Tartaric acid is probably the biggest seller for the wine industry and cost from $2-3 per pound in volume.
Because it is dependent on the price of grapes each harvest season, there can be large swings in the price of tartaric acid.
If you're a hobbyist winemaker a pound of tartaric acid can cost you $10 per pound.
That next great glass of wine you drink that doesn't make your jaw tighten up with the characteristic feel from high acid, think of tartaric acid or malic acid.
Whether you really appreciate it when consuming a wine, you do appreciate tartaric or malic acids when you smell the wine and have that great taste and feel the wine in your mouth.