Reduction of volatile acidity of wines by selected yeast strains

Herein we isolate and characterize wine yeasts with ability to reduce volatile acidity of wines using a refermentation process, which consists in mixing the acidic wine with freshly crushed grapes or musts or, alternatively, in the incubation with the residual marc. From a set of 135 yeast isolates, four strains revealed ability to use glucose and acetic acid simultaneously. Three of them were identified as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and one as Lachancea thermotolerans. Among nine commercial S. cerevisiae strains, strains S26, S29 and S30 display similar glucose and acetic acid initial simultaneous consumption pattern and were assessed in refermentation assays. In a medium containing an acidic wine with high glucose/low ethanol concentrations, under low oxygen availability, strain S29 is the most efficient one, whereas L. thermotolerans 44C is able to decrease significantly acetic acid similar to the control strain Zygosaccharomyces bailii ISA 1307, but only under aerobic conditions. Conversely, for low glucose/high ethanol concentrations, under aerobic conditions, S26 is the most efficient acid degrading strain, while under limited-aerobic conditions, all the S. cerevisiae strains studied display acetic acid degradation efficiencies identical to Z. bailii. Moreover, S26 strain also reveals capacity to decrease volatile acidity of wines. Together, the S. cerevisiae strains characterized herein appear promising for the oenological removal of volatile acidity of acidic wines.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa POCI 2010 (FEDER/FCT, POCI/AGR/56102/2004, PTDC/AGRALI/71460/2006