Malolactic Fermentation?

[chefd77]

Hi Just joined. I'm considering doings malolactic fermentation on my red young wine from California. Half Cabernet , half sangiovese. Any thoughts?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi chefd77 - and welcome. Thoughts? I say do it! And I say "do it" because I am working with my first batch of grapes to make a Sangiovese wine ( I routinely make country wines and mead but not grape wine) and I pitched some MLF bacteria (WLP 675) about a month or so ago. I cannot say what the best lab source for MLF might be (some packs are just beyond my budget) and I cannot say the bast way to monitor this process. I went with Accuvin but although it is affordable, I can see why many folk argue that using this test to monitor how the MLF is proceeding may not be easy. What is easy is to see if there is much malic or little malic left.
But here's the thing - and more seasoned grape wine makers can correct me if I am wrong: grapes often come with enough MLF bacteria to start this secondary fermentation - They may not be able to finish it BUT if you stabilize the wine and they have started then you are likely to perceive off flavors as the sorbate interacts with the MLF. And if you don't swamp the indigenous bacteria with enough K-meta they are likely (Murphy's law) to go to town in each bottle causing havoc. So, bottom line for me is- as a total novice grape wine maker - either you kill the bacteria on the grapes when you pitch the yeast OR you go with MLF and you use lab cultured cells but you need to decide and act.