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Wine Word of the Week: Inoculate
By Kori ~ August 21st, 2010.
This week’s Wine Word of the Week is inoculate.
Official definition from Ron Herbst and Sharon Tyler Herbst’s The New Wine Lover’s Companion:
Inoculate is a winemaking technique of adding an active yeast culture or malolactic bacteria to juice, must, or wine. Winemakers often inoculate their must with known strains of reliable yeasts to activate primary fermentation and achieve their desired results. Although malolactic fermentation will sometimes occur naturally, many winemakers prefer to manage this phase by inoculating with a properly prepared malolactic bacteria starter.
Layman’s terms from Kori:
Inoculate is the winemaking process in which a winemaker adds yeast to the must to initiate fermentation.
Filed under: Wine Word of the Week
[…] He describes his style as “non-interventionalist†– and refuses to fine, filter, or even inoculate for either the alcoholic or the secondary fermentation. (In case you’re wondering, I had to look […]