Lee,

I learned from an experienced wine maker and have taken his advice ever
since that the 2 things that are most important before primary
fermentation kicks off are sulfite levels andph. The theory behind it
is you want to create an environment where the only bacteria living in
that must is the bacteria you add. When the ph is low and the sulfite
levels high only the engineered yeast will thrive. If that is the only
bacteria thiving it will over power any bacteria that starts to
activate as the sulfite levels drop when it starts blowing off during
fermentation. This type of method inhibits the formation of off odors
and flavors that can be caused by the bad bacteria. After fermentation
is done you'll need to cold stabilize to adjust the ph but your
fermantation will have benn as clean as you could have possibly made
it. It's worked for me and I use a good amount of tartaric acid but
it's worth it. This winemaker actually liked to have even reds start
out with a ph close to 3.0!!!! The fermentations do come out clean.


Bob