# MLF Question



## AlFulchino (Oct 1, 2008)

I have *never* ever if you can believe it....done a mlf....never had a reason to and never had anything go bad......but having been reading and reading and reading for the last three years, it appears i am a luck presser......now that i am doing 50 gallon batches instead of the typical carboy batches i know that i risk losing too much in one shot.....enough people say do it


principally i make red wines from grapes...i do not have any whites going this year either




does everyone here do mlf?


why?


what would you recommend for a 50 gallon batchs of zin, sangiovese (2), barbera...?


do you do it on any of your kits?


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## Wade E (Oct 1, 2008)

There arent a lot of us on this forum that make wine from grapes but from what I know which isnt a heck of a lot about wines from grapes or raw juice is that it is primarily done to lower malic acid and smppth out a harsh wine. Im sure Appleman will chime in and take this to the next level. It is not for every batch of wine but some surely could benefit from it.


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## grapeman (Oct 1, 2008)

I am certainly not an expert with mlf only having done a half dozen or so of them. Judging by the number you had on your purchased grapes, I don't think that you would benefit a lot from doing them. MLF by itself is a risky proposition since you need to leave your wine basically unprotected for a couple months while the bacteria does it's conversion of malic acids to lactic acids. If you have made those wines before and they came out good, I wouldn't want to risk them. I would rather start with a few small experimetal batches.


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## Scott (Oct 1, 2008)

MLF? MILF? I must have missed a thread somewhere.


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## AlFulchino (Oct 1, 2008)

Yep Scott that is over at www.vinewinesandmilf.com 


***


so what is the fuss i see about people saying you MUST do mlf? whay are people so adamant about doing it?


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## Dean (Oct 2, 2008)

I only do MLF when the acids are too strong. Usually, with grapes, I only do it on Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Chardonnay. I had to do it once on a Cab Franc too, but that's another story. I've also had it spontaneously happen on a Syrah that I didn't want it to happen on, and that came out flabby.


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## grapeman (Oct 2, 2008)

Scott said:


> MLF? MILF? I must have missed a thread somewhere.




Scott MLF= malo lactic fermentation







MILF=


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## Flame145 (May 22, 2011)

Al Fulchino said:


> I have *never* ever if you can believe it....done a mlf....never had a reason to and never had anything go bad......but having been reading and reading and reading for the last three years, it appears i am a luck presser......now that i am doing 50 gallon batches instead of the typical carboy batches i know that i risk losing too much in one shot.....enough people say do it
> 
> 
> principally i make red wines from grapes...i do not have any whites going this year either
> ...







Al, I am making the exact same thing. I have 53 gallons in my barrel of sangiovese and zif., I choose not to do mlf because I think it tastes better without. Last year I made a little extra and tried a mlf in a 5 gallon carboy of the same exact wine I have in the barrel. The barrel tastes 10 times better. I asked my wine supply house, and they told me you can do it, but it was personal preference. Several of the workers all agreed with me and stated that they too have done sideby side comparisons and believe that too much emphasis is put on this, when you should concern yourself with best starting products first.I think less is more.


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## Bartman (May 23, 2011)

Flame145 said:


> Al Fulchino said:
> 
> 
> > I have *never* ever if you can believe it....done a mlf....never had a reason to and never had anything go bad......but having been reading and reading and reading for the last three years, it appears i am a luck presser......now that i am doing 50 gallon batches instead of the typical carboy batches i know that i risk losing too much in one shot.....enough people say do it
> ...



So, is it fair to say MLF may be a necessary or advisable step to take when starting with less-than-best grapes/juice? That is, the grapes' acids/sugars are out of balance as is more common with lower quality materials, and MLF is the simplest "fix" to rebalance? Even though it has some downsides of its own...
If so, then I can see why kits don't need it and you would want to avoid it on high-quality, high-priced grapes.


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## ibglowin (May 23, 2011)

Only if the "out of balance" is on the higher end of the TA scale. If you are on the low end of the TA scale then doing an MLF will only make matters worse. You would be taking a wine with low acid and making it even lower in acid which is not a good thing taste wise or long term stability wise.

In other words, the conversion of lactic acid into malic acid will lower the TA of the wine.


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## grapeman (May 23, 2011)

You definitely don't need to avoid mlf on high end grapes. Generally the best grapes can benefit from it as it increases mouthfeel and a lot more. You can choose a different mlb for differing needs and a lot of them will impart different characteristics to the grapes. In a lot of established winemaking regions the bacteria is ever present and will begin on it's own. This is how some of the best grapes make some of the best wines, year after year.


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## Wade E (May 23, 2011)

Its all a matter of if it needs to be done and that can only be found out by testing your wine to see if it needs MLF!


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## AlFulchino (May 23, 2011)

update for me.....had some spontaneous mlf develop during the aging of my 2009 harvest....i liked what i produced so much that for a time i kept the winery holding my 2010 harvest at 70 degrees.....the mlf occured late winter early spring.....advanced the aging and mouthfeel development...of course i was keeping the wines for the most part at 20 ppm sulfite or less...very pleased w what has transpired.....when i said two yrs ago that i had not done any mlf i was really trying to explain that i had not tried to induce this visa cultured mlf...nor temp control......the wines i had been making w grapes from italy and CA were indeed undergoing naturaal mlf when i was letting the sulfite levels remain almost non existent

taste taste taste!


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