Issue |
BIO Web of Conferences
Volume 3, 2014
37th World Congress of Vine and Wine and 12th General Assembly of the OIV (Part 1)
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Article Number | 02003 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Oenology | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/bioconf/20140302003 | |
Published online | 04 November 2014 |
Indigenous Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeasts as a source of biodiversity for the selection of starters for specific fermentations
Scuola di Scienze Agrarie, Forestali, Alimentari ed Ambientali, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, 85100 Potenza, Italy
The long-time studies on wine yeasts have determined a wide diffusion of inoculated fermentations by commercial starters, mainly of Saccharomyces. Although the use of starter cultures has improved the reproducibility of wine quality, the main drawback to this practice is the lack of the typical traits of wines produced by spontaneous fermentation. These findings have stimulated wine-researchers and wine-makers towards the selection of autochthonous strains as starter cultures. The objective of this study was to investigate the biodiversity of 167 S. cerevisiae yeasts, isolated from spontaneous fermentation of grapes. The genetic variability of isolates was evaluated by PCR amplification of inter-δ region with primer pair δ2/δ12. The same isolates were investigated for characteristics of oenological interest, such as resistance to sulphur dioxide, ethanol and copper and hydrogen sulphide production. On the basis of technological and molecular results, 20 strains were chosen and tested into inoculated fermentations at laboratory scale. The experimental wines were analyzed for the content of some by-products correlated to wine aroma, such as higher alcohols, acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate and acetic acid. One selected strain was used as starter culture to perform fermentation at cellar level. The selection program followed during this research project represents an optimal combination between two different trends in modern winemaking: the use of S. cerevisiae as starter cultures and the starter culture selection for specific fermentations.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2014
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.