I have a barrel I used for a previous vintage that underwent malolactic fermentation. This year I’m considering skipping MLF, but am concerned the old ML bugs are lodged in the oak and may go to town on this year’s juice unless I sulfite the heck out of it.
Is this a valid concern?
Depending on the cleaning used it is possible to age wine that wont go thru. I think steam or ozone would be your best bet as well as low pH and some so2. Native strains will come thru with the juice anyway but are much more sensitive to so2 than commercial strains.
Was the previous ml culture native or inoculated? Most inoculated strains will handle quite a bit of so2 before stopping. There are also other additives to prevent it from going thru but I dont know the names off hand as I have never used any of them.
It was a commercial strain, not wild.
I’ll plan to pitch ML this year to avoid any future surprises, like effervescence in the bottle. Thanks.