Dear Wine Wizard, I raised the TA of the must from 0.5 to 0.6 at the beginning of fermentation for my red wine. Should I still add malolatic bacteria to start MLF knowing that it will reduce the TA? Tony Querio Troy, Michigan Wine Wizard replies: For most homemade red wines, actively encouraging the malo-lactic fermentation (MLF) is a good thing as it can add some flavor complexity and also stabilizes it against post-bottling MLF (always a fizzy catastrophe) by pre-emptively getting rid of the malic acid present in the wine. As opposed to starting MLF concurrent with fermentation, I suggest adjusting your acid pre-primary fermentation, see your wine healthily through primary and then check the acid again once primary is complete. Primary fermentation will typically lower a TA — be sure to de-gas your sample before you run the analysis!. If it’s not totally low (say, under 5.0 g/L, go ahead and put the wine through MLF and see where the acid comes out. If you need to adjust up to get it to that point, go ahead —
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