Although I *said* I would give the syrah a few more weeks to finish MLF, it really doesn’t seem realistic that it would get going if malic acid levels have not dropped at all after 4 weeks.  I might actually be risking something bad happening in the wine in the meantime.  I posted this problem on winepress.us, and it seems that syrah is one varietal that has problems finishing malo.  There was also agreement that the alcohol level is simply too high for the bacteria to tolerate.

So, today I treated it with sulfite and lysozyme.  I’ll let those do their thing for 5 to 10 days, then rack the wine off.  I think this is the best option, since the wine does taste pretty good as it is.  Better safe than sorry!