Wine pH
Fixed acidity is a measure of the total acidity minus volatile acidity. Acidity in the final product is intimately associated with fixed acidity. Although fixed acidity cannot precisely be quantified by pH, it gives a very good estimation.
What is the pH of Wine?
“pH” is a term that quantifies the acidity of a solution. For us, it is describing the acidity of wine. One of the most important things to realize about pH is its seemingly backward association with acidity. The LOWER the pH, the HIGHER the acidity. For example, one of the strongest acids known to man, hydrochloric acid (the acid in your stomach), has a pH of 1.
Another important aspect of pH in wine is that it represents the active acid in wine, or the acid that contributes to the fixed acidity. This is just a note, but there are numerous “buffer acids” in wine that do not contribute to the acidity, but play a role in maintaining its pH at a content level. Physical chemistry aside, the pH of wine is just another way to represent how much acid is in this wine.
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