Our First Merlot

Our friends and neighbors planted Merlot several years ago, and after enduring the first several years of waiting for solid root development they finally had enough grapes to make wine!.

Unfortunately, conditions for them this year were not very kind: cool weather made them ripen very slow, and then just last week the grapes experienced a sudden surge in sugar content.  Acid numbers were like nothing we had ever seen - high TA but a conter-intuitively low pH:

Brix: 27 (which we watered down to 25)

pH: 3.8

TA: 0.86

The best overview of this problem was from Allison in her Wine Wizard column.  

We opted to ferment as normal, but added a relatively high (50ppm) level of potassium metabisulfate since such a low pH leaves the wine susceptible to spoilage.

Yeast: Lalvin BM 4x4 (atempered & added with nutrients per instructions)

Co-Innoculant: Viniflora Oenos (stirred into top 2" of must 12 hrs after pitching yeast)