Winery’s own yeasts in wine fermentation

Once the winery have harvested the grapes, the winemaking process can begin.

For this process, wineries carry out a fermentation with yeasts , where glucose converts into ethanol and carbon dioxide. These yeasts can be either commercial or from the own winery.

There are more and more wineries that start the fermentation process with their own yeasts. The vast majority of these yeasts, despite what was advocated a few years ago, come from the winery’s own terroir. Through translocation, they end up deposited inside the grapes. In other words, they are a reflection of the terroir itself.

At LEV2050, we are specialists in isolating, identifying, selecting and characterising each winery’s’ own yeasts. These yeasts can be either Saccharomyces or Non Saccharomyces. The objective of this study is to know the biodiversity of the microbiota present in very specific areas of each winery.

By doing this, by using the winery’s own yeasts, we guide the fermentation process with those that have been tested, proving their good fermentation kinetics, as well as their metabolism in generating positive organoleptic sensations, providing unique profiles in the wine. Their use can lead to avoid the deviations generated by other yeasts present in the grapes themselves, which can lead to undesirable results, as for example in the case of the Hanseniaspora uvarum, which is very ubiquitous as it resists to antifungal treatments and which in fermentation usually reveals negative profiles (usually acetates).

The aim of these yeast studies is to find those autochthonous strains with the best properties that wineries can use as fermentation starters, offering a safe fermentation and revealing their own unique profiles.