2002 vintage year i got 5 gallons of cab juice trucked cross country from
NAPA to the east coast. (actually i got ten. 5 of cab and 5 of sangiovese).
Anyway; when i got it home it was already a bit fizzy. i didnt want to add a
bunch of sulfites (i wanted to keep it natural and besides the cr*p gives me
a headach) so i just added some good liquid pasture red yeast to the juice
and "let er rip" (i added liquid chianti yeast to the sangiovese). My
question is: Is this ok? should i have done things different to kill off any
wild yeasts first or was the wild over powered by the liquid yeast. i didnt
want to heat it up either. It seams to taste good but still a bit young
maybe could be better next time. whats the standard O.P. ? thanks.

> 2002 vintage year i got 5 gallons of cab juice trucked cross country from
> NAPA to the east coast. (actually i got ten. 5 of cab and 5 of sangiovese).
> Anyway; when i got it home it was already a bit fizzy. i didnt want to add a
> bunch of sulfites (i wanted to keep it natural and besides the cr*p gives me
> a headach) so i just added some good liquid pasture red yeast to the juice
> and "let er rip" (i added liquid chianti yeast to the sangiovese). My
> question is: Is this ok? should i have done things different to kill off any
> wild yeasts first or was the wild over powered by the liquid yeast. i didnt
> want to heat it up either. It seams to taste good but still a bit young
> maybe could be better next time. whats the standard O.P. ? thanks.

I don't know a ton about this this but I would assume that YMMV -
your mileage may very. Your addition may have overwelmed the natural
yeast in the must. The natural yeast in the must, having come from
NAPA, may have been a friendly yeast in any case. What happens one
year may not happen the second.

As far as the sulfites go, the must may have been sulfited in any
case, unless of course they told you otherwise. Are you sure that
the sulfites are giving you the headache? Does normal wine, which
is sulfited, give you one?

Don