Fortified Wine Making Question

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

Greetings. I had the chance to make some fortified wine out of Touriga Nacional this past vintage. I used some calculations from a reputable port house and stuck the landing at 20.84% ABV. I plan to make a ‘vintage’ style port- not tawny. At this point I’ve only added sulfites at the crusher and I do not want/think I have to add any more before bottling.

BUT

I have recently read on a popular home winemaker supply website that you can get Lactobacilli fructivorans forming mats of hair-like colonies in port- yikes! I’ve never heard of this taint (and UCD was pretty exhautive in teaching us all the taints). Is this something to be concerned about?

2

I’ve only ever added sulfite for port at the crusher and when i want to halt the fermentation. I’ve never seen anything growing in my barrels that resemble hair like colonies. I’ve made 8 vintages of port, 5 of which were aged 10+ years in barrel. For whatever that’s worth.