Low Acid Wine: Softer Grapes, pH and How to Find Them

Low acid wine is wine that tastes softer and rounder because it has less acidity than average, not wine without acid. Every wine is acidic: Wine Folly notes that most sit between about pH 2.5 and 4.5. If you find crisp wines sharp, look for lower-acid grapes such as Gewürztraminer and Viognier among whites, and Malbec, Zinfandel and Merlot among reds, ideally from warm, sunny regions. This guide explains how acidity is measured, which grapes and styles are softer, and how to pick one on the shelf.

Note: This guide is about wine styles. It makes no health claims and isn’t medical advice. If you’re choosing wine because of a health condition, ask your doctor.

How acidity in wine is measured

Two numbers describe a wine’s acidity, and you’ll see both on producers’ technical sheets.

• pH measures how strong the acidity is. Lower numbers mean more acidic. Wine Folly points out that the scale is logarithmic, so a wine at pH 3 is roughly ten times more acidic than one at pH 4.
• Titratable acidity (TA) measures how much acid there is, usually in grams per liter (g/L).

In a 2017 presentation on making wine from high- and low-pH juice, New Mexico State University enologist Ethan Brown gives these typical ranges:

	Typical pH range (NMSU)
White wine	3.20 to 3.50
Red wine	3.40 to 3.70

He calls pH “the most important number” in winemaking, and suggests red wines ready for bottling should be about pH 3.6 to 3.7 with a TA of 5 to 7 g/L. The two numbers don’t move in lockstep, he explains: grapes contain weak organic acids, so pH and TA differ, and a wine with the same TA tastes more sour at a lower pH.

So for a softer wine, the numbers to look for are a higher pH (toward 3.6 and above for a red) and a lower TA.

What low acid wine tastes like

Wine Folly describes acidity as what gives wine its tart, sour taste: the mouth-puckering feel you get imagining a glass of lemonade. Less of it means a wine that feels:

• Rounder and softer, sometimes described as “smooth.” NMSU’s Brown lists a more round, soft mouthfeel among the effects of high pH in reds.
• Richer in fruit, often ripe stone fruit or dark berries rather than citrus and green apple.
• Less refreshing. In our view, a very low-acid wine can taste flat or heavy, especially when it’s served too warm.

There’s a winemaking trade-off too. Brown notes that high-pH reds have less microbial stability and less color stability, which is why winemakers manage them carefully.

Lower-acid white wines

Most whites are higher in acid than reds, which is why the few soft ones stand out. In Wine Folly’s grape profiles:

White grape	Acidity (Wine Folly)	Body	Typical alcohol
Gewürztraminer	Low	Medium	13.5–15%
Viognier	Medium-low	Full	13.5–15%

Gewürztraminer is the softest. Wine Folly rates its acidity low (moderate to low, in its text), while noting that the best examples still taste fresh and balanced. It describes Alto Adige’s versions as brighter in acidity and leaner, and credits the higher vineyards of Valle Isarco with notable freshness. Wine Folly tags it off-dry, though it ranges from dry to sweet, so check the label if you want it dry.

Viognier is a full-bodied, dry white with medium-low acidity. Wine Folly says it grows well in hot, dry climates and is now widely planted in warm regions such as California and Australia.

Oaked Chardonnay is not a low-acid grape, but it often tastes softer than crisp whites because of malolactic fermentation, a step in which bacteria turn sharp malic acid into softer lactic acid. NMSU’s Brown puts the typical pH rise from malolactic fermentation at about 0.2. Our guide to malolactic fermentation explains which wines go through it.

In our view, the whites to skip if you want low acid are Sauvignon Blanc, Albariño, Riesling and Chenin Blanc, which our guide to types of white wine lists as high in acidity, along with the acidity of each common grape.

Lower-acid red wines

Reds tend to have a higher pH than whites to begin with. Brown notes that skin contact raises pH, partly because of potassium in the grape skins, and that a pH above 3.6 is often unavoidable in reds. Within reds, Wine Folly’s profiles rate these two as medium-low in acidity:

Red grape	Acidity (Wine Folly)	Tannin	Typical alcohol
Malbec	Medium-low	Medium	13.5–15%
Zinfandel	Medium-low	Medium-high	14%+ (profile box: over 15%)

Malbec is a full-bodied red with medium-low acidity. Wine Folly adds that it tends to lose acidity at lower elevations and does better high up, where cold nights keep it fresher. See our Malbec wine guide.

Zinfandel also has medium-low acidity, according to Wine Folly, which credits fog and ocean breezes in Sonoma with keeping its wines fresher, and says warmer climates lean toward darker fruit. Read our Zinfandel guide.

Merlot has medium acidity, as our Merlot wine guide notes, but it sits on the softer side in measurements. A 2024 study of 51 grape varieties grown in Bordeaux, by Plantevin and colleagues in Frontiers in Plant Science, placed Merlot, Cot (Malbec) and Pinot Noir in a cluster of varieties with higher pH, and found Carménère to have a very high pH; Sangiovese was among the varieties with the lowest pH.

If you want low acid, we’d skip Sangiovese, the grape of Chianti, which the Bordeaux study puts among the lowest-pH varieties.

Why climate and ripeness matter

Grapes lose acidity as they ripen. Wine Folly explains that green grapes start out very acidic and that acidity tapers as they ripen, while cool nights and cold weather help grapes keep it. The Bordeaux study puts it in chemical terms: malic acid is “thermo-sensitive,” breaking down faster at higher temperatures because of greater enzyme activity.

That gives you a practical shortcut on the shelf. In our view:

• Warm, sunny regions, such as the California and Australian vineyards where Wine Folly says Viognier thrives, are good places to look for softer wines.
• Cool or high sites, such as high-altitude vineyards for Malbec or Valle Isarco for Gewürztraminer, tend to keep more acidity, according to Wine Folly’s profiles.
• Riper styles and oak-aged wines usually taste softer than young, unoaked ones from the same grape.

How to find a low acid wine

1. Start with the grape. Gewürztraminer or Viognier for white; Malbec, Zinfandel or warm-climate Merlot for red.
2. Check the region. Warmer is usually softer.
3. Look up the tech sheet. Producers’ technical sheets often list pH and TA. In our view, a red near pH 3.7 or a white above 3.5 is on the soft side of NMSU’s ranges.
4. Serve it a little cool. We’d chill a soft white well and give a soft red 15 minutes in the fridge, which keeps it from tasting flat.
5. Pair it well. Low-acid wines don’t cut through rich or acidic food as well as crisp ones. We’d pair them with mild dishes rather than tomato sauces or vinaigrettes.

If tart wine is what bothers you, our guide to why wine tastes sour also explains how to tell normal acidity from spoilage.

Acid reflux and wine

People sometimes search for low acid wine because of heartburn. We can’t tell you whether any wine is suitable for you, and we don’t claim that low-acid wine helps. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) lists alcoholic drinks and acidic foods, such as citrus fruits and tomatoes, among the foods and drinks commonly linked to GERD symptoms, and advises talking with your doctor about your diet and the foods or drinks that seem to increase your symptoms.

Wine is for adults of legal drinking age (21 in the US). Please drink responsibly.