Thanks for the helpful reply, Chris.

Yes... I originally fermented 6 gallons in the barrel with the
remaining 11 gallons in the cold garage. Brix was at 21.5 before
fermentation. When I racked the 6 gallons out of the barrel and
tested Brix on the 11 gallons it was at 21.5, so I saw no change in
the must. I must have caught it immediately after fermentation
started. Hopefully this will work in my favor in terms of the CY3079
taking a dominant role in fermentation.

When I racked the 6 gallons out, I left about 1/2 gallon knowing it
would be an excellent yeast starter for the 11 gallons. I also
created another yeast starter for the 11 gallons and pitched that too,
so that barrel has TONS of CY3079 in it! Unfortunately I didn't hit
the must with meta. SO2 was at about 15ppm for the 6 gallon batch. I
didn't want to increase it too much for fear it would mess up ML
fermentation when Brix hits about 10 or so.

The 6 gallon batch will never mix with the 11 gallon batch until aging
is complete and bench trials are performed to determine a proper
blend. It'll be very interesting to compare the flavor of the two
batches to see if there's a noticeable difference.

Wild yeasts are "like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're
gonna get!" :-)

But, with that said (as you pointed out), wine was made for thousands
of years using wild yeast so there's a good chance things will work
out fine, or not, or maybe better, or worse. What's nice is I have
that other batch properly fermenting on CY3079 to compare. I just
hope it's not all a waste. At $18.50/gallon, that's an expensive
waste!!! :-o

-Paul