Are you seeing high VA in reds this year? (We are 🙄) We've received a lot of feedback about high volatile acidity (VA) in red grapes, especially in Northern California. We don't have a full understanding of why this is happening. We're seeing high VA with and without visible signs of rot. We're also seeing high VA with and without the presence of spoilage organisms. However, we do have some best practices on how to mitigate the effects. Why is VA a problem? 👉 Acetic acid is inhibitory to yeast and can cause stuck fermentations 👉 Negative sensory impacts 👉 Legal limitations in wine What can you do about it? 🤔 Our technical team has put together a guide to managing high VA. Click below to check it out!  Click Here to Open

Harvest 2022 is upon us.  The heat wave caused a lot of problems in the vineyards.  There are reports of juice reaching 40 Brix or more, with VA’s already above 1 g/l.  We have prepared answers to some typically asked questions related to these challenging conditions: How do I treat high VA juice? You unfortunately can’t.  The operating pressure required to generate permeate through our process is too high for the machinery to handle.  You do have options though! What are my options if I can’t reduce the VA in the juice? You water back to an acceptable sugar level. Typically, high VA numbers are associated with dehydrated juice.  Any juice with a brix level of more than 26 is effectively dehydrated juice.  The best solution for reducing the VA prior to fermentation is to rehydrate (add water).  You need to add water to the juice until you reach a comfortable brix level.  This will typically dilute your VA to an acceptable l