Shaping Wine Quality by the Use of Native Yeast Microbiota

The competitive nature of global wine market calls for the production of premium wines endowed with authenticity and typicity. More and more consumers prefer not only superior wines, but also wines made through natural and organic procedures. To fulfill these requirements, modern winemaking adopts alternative technologies which among others include the implementation of spontaneous fermentations, reduced addition of preservatives and production of wines with low alcohol levels. Although such practices may lead to the production of wines with desired characteristics, at the same time musts or wines are susceptible to microbial spoilage. Even more importantly, the development of certain microorganisms may also pose health risks through the production of harmful compounds, such as biogenic amines or ethyl carbamate. Therefore, the microbial community composition should be controlled during the various stages of wine production. In this respect, the addition of well-selected yeast starter culture (SC) is crucial. Winemakers should adopt precision fermentation technologies taking advantage from the unlimited reservoir of indigenous germplasm and exploiting the biodiversity using the right yeast SC for the particular needs. This, however, entails a deep knowledge of the indigenous microbiota and its activity during winemaking. Here we present the characterization of indigenous yeast isolates from the vineyard as promising novel arrows to the quiver of the current SC technology. Such novel SCs may be applied to appease the existing trends with the assurances of high quality and safety standards SC in winemaking.