Great question that I forgot to address in the cast! (Damn.) I'm gonna pin this in the hopes that people see it and the response. It is possible to arrest malo part way through the process (e.g., use SO2 on it and then filter) but there's no way to know how much malic acid has been converted if you do that. So, when you hear about partial malo, especially with a percentage given, what's happened is almost certainly blending -- i.e., the producer has blended some barrels that have gone through malo with wine from barrels that haven't; thus, if the producer blends a cuvée from 3 barrels of Chard that have gone through malo and 7 barrels that haven't then the resulting cuvée is 30% malo and so on. Thanks again for the question and I hope that helps. Cheers!

The Unknown Winecaster got it.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Cheers!

Thank you and thanks for watching. Cheers!

You're very welcome. Cheers!

Thanks! I hope it was helpful. Cheers!

My pleasure! Glad you found it helpful. Cheers!

Thank you! Cheers!

My pleasure. I'm glad it's helpful. Cheers!

These days virtually all MLC/F is intentional -- either the winemaker inoculated or put the wine in an environment where she expected MLC/F to occur (e.g., barrels that have gone through malo before). Someone working in a naturalist or low-intervention style might have trouble getting malo going in some circumstances (because they might opt not to inoculate) or a producer might want to suppress malo for a certain style (red Vinho Verde comes to mind), but that's about it. Hope that's helpful. Cheers!

Thanks for the message. MLF/MLC is a decarboxylation, and microbiologists find it useful to distinguish between this process and a fermentation. Here are a couple of examples: www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=2ahUKEwiG76yT-_DiAhXmiFQKHQj3DQwQFjACegQIAxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.sun.ac.za%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10019.1%2F103673%2Fduplessis_effect_2018.pdf%3Fsequence%3D1%26isAllowed%3Dy&usg=AOvVaw00B5iEshsaWQH74UQ7OqY3 (p. 66 in PDF "Malolactic fermentation is not a true “fermentation”, but rather an enzymatic reaction whereby malic acid is decarboxylated to lactic acid and CO2.") winesociety.stanford.edu/my-first-crush-update (Discussion at the bottom of page headed by "**".) You're correct (as the second source also acknowledges) that there are many definitions of "fermentation" out there, but I follow the Saussurean principle of letting the speech community that uses the term define its usage. In this case, the community of microbiologists seems to make a distinction between decarboxylation and fermentation; so, I follow their lead. I hope that's helpful. Thanks again for the question and cheers!

@@TheUnknownWinecaster Thanks for the reply and explanation! I can't even count the number of debates I've had on semantics. Language is a profoundly frustrating thing and I think this is a prime example. MLF meets the technical requirements of a fermentation by nearly every measure that I could find, but it's a totally different process than alcoholic fermentation. So if you're a scientist that specializes in microbiology, especially in regards to wine, it makes sense to call them different things. It's awkward, because the term has been in use for longer than we've understood the processes. So now it's an odd sort of blanket term. It's also used to describe the process of converting ethanol to acetic acid. There is no "true" fermentation unless you choose to define it narrowly for a specific purpose. I guess my point is that I wouldn't suggest people are technically wrong for saying MLF instead of MLC because it's just too vague a term to get into semantics on. Sorry for the rant, it's all in good spirits!