6 - An Influence of Different Yeast Species on Wine Aroma Composition

Abstract

According to many literature data, it can be concluded that with a more than 6000-year history starting from Georgia wine or from the chemical point of view fermented grape juice is one of the world’s oldest fermented beverage. Wine composition and quality are influenced by many factors such as grape variety, environmental conditions (climate, soil properties, soil water, terrain), as well as fermentation conditions mainly determined by fermentation temperature and yeast species selection. Until today more than 800 volatile compounds have been identified at the wide range of chemical groups concentration levels. Among them, three major groups can be pointed out as primary (varietal), secondary (fermentative), and tertiary (aging) wine aroma. The combination of varietal and fermentative aroma compounds are found to be one of the first factors influencing wine quality and the choice of yeast species and selected strains are singled out as one of a determinant in defining the concentration of these volatile compounds. Nowadays wine producers have tried to avoid the uniformity of product searching, the way to produce more complex wines with distinctive aroma profile, which can be achieved by the use of non-Saccharomyces species. There are numerous papers concerning the composition and content of aroma compounds in different grape varieties and wines produced with different yeasts, but till date, there is no review article that unifies these data. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to unify the known data concerning the influence of selected yeast species in single, simultenouos, and sequential fermentations on the content and composition of aroma compounds.