A method to determine whether certain acids are present in the wine is called
Paper Chromatography. What at first seemed like black magic to me, is really a cool chemistry technique that I used to determine whether MLF (
malolactic fermentation) was complete.
I won't go into the fine details of how to do it. It involves putting a tiny droplet of wine and acids on special paper, soaking up some special solution, and seeing which chemicals separate out. Here is a
link to a youtube video (props to Jason Morgan) that I found useful; it depicts exactly what I did. Maybe next year I'll be a better blogger and record videos!
Anyway, the picture on the right shows my results: a chromatogram that shows MLF is complete! No malic acid remains, but lactic acid and tartaric acid do. I know - it's hard to see and you really don't care anyway. But it means I can rack the wine from the glass containers into the oak barrel for long-term aging. I'll do that in the next week.
Cheers!
Dave Sienknecht
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