What does yogurt, lemon, water, and Coca-Cola have in common? They all land somewhere on the pH scale, just like wine 🍷 #winewednesday101

Acidity is what gives wine its tart and sour taste, and it makes your mouth tingly. Wines sit on the pH scale ranging from about 3 to 4 pH. Water is neutral at 7 pH, and Coca-cola is acidic at 2.5 pH. High-acid wines, like Riesling, can be as sour as lemons and lower-acid wines, like Merlot, can be as neutral as Greek yogurt.

Wines with higher acidity taste lighter bodied and less sweet. Wines with lower acidity taste fuller bodied and more sweet. If a wine is not balanced and acidity is off, it can taste flabby or flat (not pleasant at all).

One of my silly acidity gauging tricks is to swirl a bit of wine in my mouth, spit or swallow it, and then look downwards while opening my mouth. If the saliva rushes out, it’s high acid. If it’s a bit slower, then you know it’s medium or low acid.