Reusing Oak barrel for non MLF wine after completed MLF wine age in it

[From_LV]

Hello,
Does anyone know if I can reuse an oak barrel for wine I don’t want it to go through MLF if I transfer the wine that has MLF completed to oak age in it? Currently, I have Malbec wine going through MLF inside a glass carboy and I’d like to have the wine oak age in an oak barrel after the MLF is completed. However, I’m concerned that I might not be able to use the barrel for any none MLF wine again. Do you know if malolactic bacteria will contaminate the barrel causing any wine in the barrel to start MLF? I’m making both dry and sweet wine. I wanna make sure that I won’t get any geranium aroma in any of my semi/sweet wine due to K-Sorbate used for stabilizing the wine prior to backsweeten.

Thanks!

 

[salcoco]

I would think that the bacteria will take resident in the barrel. something I would not risk.

 

[Johnd]

I second that motion, don't put wine into a barrel that has had MLB in it, it's too much of a risk. When I was using the 6 gallon Vadai barrels, I had them labelled so that I never put a wine that I didn't want exposed to MLB into a barrel that had bacteria in it already.

 

[Boatboy24]

Agree with what's already been said. However, you could consider using Lysozyme to prevent MLF. Risky, but it should work in theory.

 

[CoteRotie]

Agree with the above, I've heard that it's almost impossible to prevent MLF in a barrel if it contained a wine that underwent MLF in the past. I suppose a high temperature steam cleaning and lysozyme might do it, but it's a risk.

 

[NorCal]

I spoke to a commercial winemaker that was visiting my humble garage set-up, popping corks and talking. He said I was wasting money buying mlb every year when I reuse a barrel. He claimed he never buys MLB and once its in the barrel, it is there to stay.

 

[Jay A]

It's gonna happen