Thanks for the advice. Couldn't I just add extra tartaric after malolactic
if it tasted flat? Since many of the best apple ciders contain residual
sugar to bring out the apples, I made the vinifera comment to distinguish
what I am making (dry, full-bodied apple wine) from apple cider. In my
opinion, the best country wines mimic the styles of vinifera wines--that's
why I like Jack's recipes--the wines don't taste like the starting fruit.

It's pretty hard to grow vinifera vines here in Georgia (or impossible),
but I can drive an hour into the mountains and get a bushel of apples for
about $5. That's why, if I could get something even remotely resembling the
buttery flavor of a chardonnay, I would be a pretty happy guy. In addition,
malolactic takes away the "fruity" taste in wines, so I thought that might
move my wine even one more step away from cider and one more toward wine.

Vic

"Tom S" > wrote in message
. com...
>
> "Vic Whirlwind" > wrote in message
> . ..
>>I am making about 35 gallons of apple cider, and I want it to taste as
>>close to vinifera wine as possible. I want to encourage malolactic, but I
>>am worried it has too much sulfite to let the malolactic bacteria do their
>>thing effectively. Is there something I can do to measure sulfite? And
>>if there's too much, is there something I can do to make malolactic
>>fermentation happen, anyway? Would inoculation create bad consequences if
>>malolactic didn't take?
>
> I'm no expert on apple cider, but I'd guess that since the dominant acid
> in apples is malic, if you run ML on it the cider/wine will end up so flat
> you could slip it under a door. :^/
>
> If you want to make a wine that tastes like vinifera, you need to start
> with vinifera fruit.
>
> Tom S
>