SubscribeWine Faults: Bacteria Related Off-Odors In Wine I don’t remember if I mentioned this in my last post or not, but essentially wine faults are caused by either sulfur compounds or bacteria; and then to pile on top of things there are a handful of other wine nuisances that can’t be categorized. Continuing from, sulfur compounds in wine, let’s learn about bacterial off-odors in wine. Wine tip: Acidity in wine is usually referred to as astringency. Lactic Acid In Wine Remember in grade school when your gym teacher would make you run to hell and back and the next day your muscles would be sore? Turns out, that’s not lactic acid build up at all and neither is this anecdote. To soften a wine’s astringency from naturally occurring malic acid in grapes and to give a wine some complexity, most notably a ‘buttery’ aroma, a winemaker will use a process called malolactic fermentation. The magic ingredient used to convert the harsh malic acid into its soft, yummy butteriness is lactic acid bacteria. However, if the LAB (for you acronym lovers out there) is not fully removed after the malolactic fermentation process, the wine could take on a sauerkraut stench, not [...]
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