L-Lactic Acid
L-Lactic acid is the second most sour organic acid in wine that is most commonly associated with the tartness of sour beers, but that is also becoming increasingly relevant for winemakers in the context of climate change (Amerine et al. 1965). While lactic acid is generally associated with biological deacidification during malolactic fermentation (MLF), yeasts like Lachancea thermotolerans are becoming increasingly common for biological acidification in musts by converting glucose and fructose to lactic acid before fermentation (Vicente et al., 2021). Biological acidification is very effective, capable of raising the titratable acidity upwards of 4 g/L, but also difficult to execute with precision as it is a biological process. Winemakers experimenting with Lachancea thermotolerans should note the differences in perceived sourness between Tartaric acid and Lactic acid in the resulting wines.
Quantifying lactic acid has applications in both grapes and wine. Even though it’s not naturally occurring in grapes, UC Davis researchers suspect lactic acid testing throughout the ripening period is a useful metric for quantifying spoilage pre-harvest. Similarly in wine, it serves as an indicator of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) activity, characterizing the start and progression of MLF.
To learn more about L-Lactic Acid and its importance in winemaking, become a Bound advising client.
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FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Supplies
- Centrifuge Tubes (SKU: G1005-50-2)
- Blank Label Sheets
- Label Template (Download)
- We supply 50 mL centrifuge tubes and labels for local Santa Barbara clients upon request.
Best Practices
- Collect a sample of your wine in a way that is most representative of the entire lot (i.e. practice flushing your sample valve, collecting after movements like pumpovers, stirring your barrel, etc.).
Label
- Label each sample appropriately with your Client ID, Sample Date, and Sample ID. Samples for Phenolics analysis also require a Crush Date, Varietal, and Appellation. The analysis cannot be performed without the applicable information for each sample.
- Mark the panel.
- Individual parameters can be added at the bottom of the label. A full list can be found on our ANALYSES page.
Clients are able to submit samples by contacting us directly and scheduling a pickup, delivering directly to our lab, or sending via the mail.
To arrange for pickup, clients must be located near Lompoc, Buellton, Santa Ynez, Goleta, or Santa Barbara and notify us by 11 am for same-day retrieval. Please contact us for more information.
- We provide same-day results by 7 pm with a guaranteed turnaround within 24 hours of sample receipt.
- Samples that are not analyzed same-daly are refrigerated overnight and analyzed first thing the next morning.
- Results are delivered via email in PDF format and uploaded to your account.
- Our invoices are sent via email and are due upon receipt.
- Your payment iOur invoices are sent via email and are due upon receipt.
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To ensure their stability, we ask our clients freeze their juice samples before shipment. Please contact Bound with any additional questions about sample preparation before shipment. We recommend expedited same-day to one-day shipping with a tracking number included.
Frozen
Samples can be placed in a freezer 24-hours in advance and shipped with an ice pack. Do not over-fill the polypropylene tubes or use glass containers as the frozen liquid will expand and could pose a safety concern. Freezing samples is a better alternative to boiling when analyzing compounds like ethanol, volatile acidity, free sulfur, and phenolics. Label each sample as "FROZEN".