I gave the merlots a stir to mix up the oak and give the malolactic bacteria a little oxygenation to make them happy, then took a sample to check on the strip tests for initiation of malolactic fermentation.   It’s kind of a given that there is already malic acid in the wine, so the first test is just to see if any lactic acid can be detected yet.  These tests are not obvious to me, having not used them before, but it looks like there is a decent purple tint for the test for lot A, giving a reading of 40-80 mg/L lactic acid.  Lot B reading is much fainter, so if there is any lactic acid present, it’s at 10 mg/L or below.  I guess I’ll just see what it looks like next week!