The wrong mix of acids can lead to very tart wines with very poor shelf life. Grapes can get out of sync, giving you really high pHs when you still have high TAs. A high TA means the juice has lots of protons and a sour taste, but the high pH means they aren’t free and available—that is, your protons are tied up somewhere. To revisit the police analogy, you have a lot of cops off duty, or in donut shops.
