Titratable Acidity, Total Acidity, TA

Total acidity (also losely referred to as titratable acidity) is a measure of the total acids present in wine. TA is related to pH but the concepts are not identical. While pH measures acid strength, TA measures the amount of acids present.

Acidity is perceived in degrees of tartness and decreases as the grapes become riper. Tartaric acid is the primary acid, but others such as malic and citric can be found as well. As the harvest date draws near, TA in the grapes drops (due to the respiration of malic acid). It is important to pick the grapes with enough TA or an adjustment will need to be made. TA is important, but somewhat less important than pH as most winemaking decisions (including acid additions) are based on pH, not TA.

TA is measured in g/100ml in the US, and values for table wines generally fall somewhere between 0.4 and 0.9 g/100ml.