When plated onto petri dishes, the unpasteurized inoculated wine achieved the expected growth of about 500 CFUs (colony-forming units), a typical result. But all the pasteurized inoculation grew to 107 CFU, whether micro-oxygenated or not. That’s 10,000,000 cells per ml. I had never seen this kind of growth, and I came to understand that our greatest ally in controlling Brett has been the presence of other microbes. Brett is an opportunistic pathogen; like a hospital disease, it can be promoted by excessive sterile practices.
