Enough already
It just won’t end. In fact, we are going backwards.
We did another malic test on the small 13 gallon barrel. Here is the Vinquiry result.
We went UP to 110 mg/L. How can that happen? It went from 70 to 110 mg/L.
- Maybe the bottles I am topping off with have lots of malic acid. That is probably not possible, since I have put less than 1 bottle in since we last measured the malic. At the starting malic of 1210 mg/L, one topping bottle could only have push edit to 87 mg/L. Also, ALL the wine was inoculated with MLB, so even the topping bottles should have started their MLF’s.
- Maybe Vinquiry is wrong. Probably not.
- Maybe there are spatial differences in the ML concentration in the barrel. I don’t know if that is possible, as one would think that there would be diffusion going on, but I have read since this event that barrels should be stirred periodically, so the the MLB don’t settle out.
So, what are we going to do? Stir the barrels twice week. I built a shelter around the barrels, and have a space heater inside. I will try and keep the temperature around 65 F. If we can do that for another 2 weeks, we’ll test again.