Chromatography test for Wine Acid

     

      Here is a picture of the new test tool which we just acquired to improve our wine quality.  Most of my biology students and any chemistry student  should recognize it as a chromatography assay.  While most wineries choose to send their samples off to a lab and have their results printed, Chris and I take satisfaction from actually running and interpreting our analytic tests in-house.  I have previously blogged about our refractometer, total acidity titration, free SO2 and density tests just to name a few.  Today's test was from a tool to determine what acids remain in our wines after our primary and malolactic fermentations.  As we have stated in our tasting room to any customer who cares to listen, we do not put our white wines through a malolactic fermentation or barrel age our whites.  However, we have begun to both malolactic ferment and barrel age our reds.  This chromatography test shows the results of our friendly malolactic bacterial inoculation.  The left 3 lanes are our standards and the lanes 4-8 are our tank samples.  Any acids that remain visible in our samples mean they are present in our wines.  Thankfully, our malolactic bacteria eliminated the sharp, acidic taste of our Cab. franc and Chambourcin.  Now, all we need is an 15 month rest in toasted French oak barrels.  The results of this years wines should speak for themselves.