Wines with high pH values are usually made from grapes with high potassium values and can bring serious problems to the wine. This high potassium comes, usually, from mistakes with the vines management. While the right management has being tried, in the vineyard, and aiming to find a fast solution for the problem inside the winery a pilot scale fermentation was made with Cabernet Sauvignon. The must was submitted to three different treatments with tartaric acid: zero, 1gL-1 and 2gL-1,all in duplicate. The pattern of fermentation was the normal SO2, pectinolitic enzymes and yeasts addition to the musts; skins and seeds were removed from the must after 10 days of fermentation and malolactic fermentation occurred spontaneously. Potassium (by flame spectrometry), total acidity (by titulometry) and pH (by pH meter) were analyzed in the musts during fermentation and in the wines; skins and lees were digested previously the analysis. Values found, in the wines, for potassium (gL-1), total acidity (g%) and pH were respectively: samples from zero tartaric acid 1,98, 0.61, 3,68; from 1gL-1:1,72, 0.70 e 3,63; from 2gL-1:1,41, 0,73 e 3,50. Values found in the skins and lees with the same treatments were, respectively: 24,91 and 69.30, 21,85 and 75.11, 16,20 and 85.38g kg-1 of the Dry Matter. The effect of tartaric acid addition was noted mainly in the lees (69.3, 75.11 and 85.38), in which the potassium found showed a close relationship with the acid added in the must. It should be noted, though, that this addition is just for the moment because the real correction should be made in the vineyard, as it is now.
acidity; must; wine; minerals
