We have intentionally put bacteria in our Chardonnay. Why would we do that you ask? Our Chardonnay currently has approximately 10 g/L of titratable acidity (TA) and in order to lower the acidity, we put in a lactic acid bacteria called MBR-31 to conduct the transformation of malic acid to lactic acid. The transformation makes the tart tasting malic acid a bit softer when it is converted to lactic acid.
Scott Laboratories provides a nice document on
Malolactic Bacteria including a score card to determine how simple or difficult malolactic fermentation can be for a given wine.
We chose MBR-31 because it is a strain of
Oenococcus oeni adapted to low temperature and low pH environments. It has good alcohol tolerance and is tolerant of sulfur dioxide at a level of 30 ppm.
Prior to inoculating our Chardonnay with MBR-31, we ran a paper chromatography experiment to
check for titratable acids, then we inoculated our Chardonnay with MBR-31 on October 24, 2017. So far, we have noticed no change in the malic and lactic acid concentrations.
References:
1. Scott Laboratories
Malolactic Bacteria.
2.
Lalvin MBR-31
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