ISHS Acta Horticulturae 754: International Workshop on Advances in Grapevine and Wine Research
YEAST/VINE INTERACTION AS SELECTION TOOL TO OPTIMIZE WINE TYPICALITY |
| Authors: | P. Romano, A. Capece |
| Keywords: | Saccharomyces cerevisiae, RAPD-PCR analysis, by-products, β-D-xylosidase, proteolytic activity, polyphenol content, strain selection |
| Abstract:
The conversion of grape sugars to alcohol and other end-products by specific yeast populations may yield wines with distinct organoleptic quality. In order to reduce the risk of undesirable changes of wine flavour, nowadays commercial starter cultures are widespread used in winemaking. In addition to their principal role of transforming grape sugars into alcohol without off-flavours development, starter cultures have to possess technological properties related to the winemaking process, such as useful enzymatic activities and production of secondary compounds related both to wine organoleptic quality and human health. The actual trend is the selection of starter cultures able to complement and optimize grape quality in order to obtain a wine, which could be the result of the optimal interaction yeast/vine. The selection of starter cultures is mainly addressed to the principal actor in wine fermentation, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, characterized by high ethanol and sulphur dioxide tolerance and high fermentation power, which allows to dominate and complete grape must fermentation. Among strains of this species it’s demonstrated the existence of a strong polymorphism and it is widely reported that each fermentation seems to have its own population of different S. cerevisiae strains, which contribute to the wine chemical composition and produce wines differing in the expression of technological traits. This paper deals with results of studies performed on numerous wild S. cerevisiae strains, isolated from grapes of different varieties, in order to emphasize the significant biodiversity of this species and the need of a strong selection procedure for the individuation of suitable starter cultures in function of grape must to ferment. | |
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