Characterization of new yeast strains, isolated for the selection of the most suitable ones for sparkling wine

Abstract

This paper presents the provisional results of the studies on the selection of most suitable yeast strains in a lot of 84 strains from Iasi vineyard- Copou wine centre, in order to be used for sparkling wine production. For achieving this objective, we used at first an initial test for checking the fermentation features of yeast strains, with the following targets: foaming ability, evolution in time (triggering, finish) of fermentation process’ stages. We selected 27 from the 84 yeast strains. In the second test for checking fermentation features, conducted in the laboratory and using fermentation tanks of 10 litters, we checked the selected strains’ ability to stick or not to the walls of the fermentation tanks, the formation of granular or compact yeast deposits, the ability to completely ferment sugars from must and the property not to produce hydrogen sulphide. For this test we selected 14 strains from the 27 yeast strains, in particular: two strains MNF1 and MNC3 for producing the basic wine and 10 yeast strains MNF4, MNF8, MNF11, MNF9, MNC9, MNC12, MNC13, MNO4, MNO14 and MNO16 for the second fermentation in bottles.