Malo-Lactic culture – SPECIAL ORDER ITEM (outside of the harvest seasons this strain may take as long as 2-3 weeks to arrive)
A commercially-prepared strain of the bacteria Oneococcus oenii. Each 125 ml pouch contains enough culture to inoculate 5 gallons of wine. Particularly useful in starting malolactic fermentation in red wines and selected white wines. Must be kept refrigerated prior to use, and the fermentation should be conducted within a temperature range of 64 and 82 degrees F. ML bacteria are only slightly tolerant of SO2 so it is important to ensure that little or no SO2 is used prior to the addition of the ML culture, and none be used until after the ML fermentation is complete. This is determined by a simple test called paper chromatography.