Candida stellata is frequently found in wine fermentations and may be used as a yeast starter in beverage production. In order to acquire additional knowledge on the physiology of C. stellata, a study on sugar metabolism in aerobic and anaerobic conditions was carried out. We found that under anaerobic conditions the low growth rate and biomass yield of C. stellata were due to the diversion of carbon flux from ethanol to glycerol. C. stellata had lower ADHI (alcohol dehydrogenase) activity (3-4 fold) and higher GPDH (glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) activity (40 and 15 times higher in anaerobiosis and aerobiosis respectively) than that of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae control strain. In aerobic sugar-limited chemostat culture C. stellata exhibited lower maximum biomass concentration [5.23 gl(-1) (dry weight)] than other respirofermentative yeasts at very low dilution rates (up to D = 0.042 h(-1)). While glycerol was constantly produced, ethanol and sugar residue appeared at D = 0.042 h(-1) and D = 0.065 h(-1) respectively. The tendency of C. stellata to form glycerol is probably the main cause of its very low growth and fermentation rates.