Potassium as an acidity regulator

Wine has become very pop­u­lar. Whether it’s red wine in win­ter with a hearty meal or ice-cold white wine or rosé in sum­mer to enjoy the sun­set, wine should have a bal­anced acid­i­ty. To achieve just that, wine­mak­ers use the pos­si­bil­i­ty of fine deacid­i­fi­ca­tion with the help of potas­si­um bicarbonate.

The sweet­ness or acid­i­ty of a wine is usu­al­ly influ­enced by the degree of ripeness of the respec­tive grape vari­eties used. How­ev­er, since this is a nat­ur­al prod­uct that is par­tic­u­lar­ly depen­dent on the weath­er, it may be nec­es­sary to reg­u­late the acid­i­ty of the wine dur­ing production.

A par­tic­u­lar­ly gen­tle process is the addi­tion of potas­si­um bicar­bon­ate, also known as potas­si­um hydro­gen car­bon­ate. The reac­tion of potas­si­um bicar­bon­ate with the acid of the wine leads to the for­ma­tion of poor­ly sol­u­ble potas­si­um bitar­trate which is also known as wine tar­trate. Dur­ing this reac­tion CO2 is released and the pH val­ue of the wine is increas­ing at the same time which has a pos­i­tive effect on the taste. The pre­cip­i­tat­ed tar­trate can be eas­i­ly sep­a­rat­ed from the rest of the wine in the fur­ther process. To achieve even faster crys­tal­liza­tion, it is rec­om­mend­ed to chill the wine.

Potas­si­um bicar­bon­ate is suit­able for influ­enc­ing the acid­i­ty very pre­cise­ly. 67 g of potas­si­um bicar­bon­ate per hec­to­liter of wine neu­tral­ize about 1 g of tar­tar­ic acid per liter. Pre­cise deter­mi­na­tion of the acid con­tent is essen­tial, as legal guide­lines must also be observed in this context.