Sparkling wine the production of still wine with some noted divergence. At the vineyard, grapes are harvested early when there is still high acid levels. In areas like Australia, winemakers aim to harvest the grapes at 17 to 20° brix. Unlike still wine production, high sugar levels are not ideal and grapes destined for sparkling wine production may be harvested at higher yields. Care is taken to avoid tannins and other phenolic compounds with many premium producers still choosing to harvest by hand rather than risk mechanical harvesting which may split the berries and encourage maceration between the skins and juice. The
Ripeness in viticulture .75 TA will have almost a 30:1 Brix:TA ratio. According to the Davis researchers, the most balanced table wines tend to have a Brix to TA ratio between 30:1 - 35:1. Another method is to multiply the pH reading by itself and then multiply that number by the Brix reading. Using this method, when white wine grapes gets close to 200 and red wine grapes close to 260, it can be a good rule of thumb of when to harvest. For example, white wine grapes have a pH of 3.3 and Brix of 20, after going through that formula they