The film-forming Pichia spp. in a winemaker's toolbox: A simple isolation procedure and their performance in a mixed-culture fermentation of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Gewürztraminer must

Stefano Scansani; Niël van Wyk; Khalil Bou Nader; Beata Beisert; Silvia Brezina; Stefanie Fritsch; Heike Semmler; Ludwig Pasch; Isak S Pretorius; Christian von Wallbrunn; Sylvia Schnell; Doris Rauhut

doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2022.109549

The film-forming Pichia spp. in a winemaker's toolbox: A simple isolation procedure and their performance in a mixed-culture fermentation of Vitis vinifera L. cv. Gewürztraminer must

Int J Food Microbiol. 2022 Mar 16:365:109549. doi: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2022.109549. Epub 2022 Jan 19.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany; Institute of Applied Microbiology, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany. Electronic address: stefano.scansani@hs-gm.de.
² Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany; ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Department of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
³ Department of General & Organic Viticulture, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany.
⁴ Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany.
⁵ Department of Enology, Hochschule Geisenheim University, Geisenheim, Germany.
⁶ ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Department of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
⁷ Institute of Applied Microbiology, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany.

PMID: 35074659
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2022.109549

Abstract

Certain yeast species belonging to the Pichia genus are known to form a distinctive film on grape must and wine. In a mixed-culture type fermentation, Pichia spp. (P. kluyveri in particular) are known to impart beneficial oenological attributes. In this study, we report on an easy isolation method of Pichia spp. from grape must by exploiting their film-forming capacity on media containing 10% ethanol. We isolated and identified two Pichia species, namely Pichia kudriavzevii and Pichia kluyveri, and subsequently co-inoculated them with Saccharomyces cerevisiae to ferment Gewürztraminer musts. Noteworthy differences included a significant increase in the 2-phenethyl acetate levels with the P. kluyveri co-fermentation and a general increase in ethyl esters with the P. kudriavzevii co-fermentation. Both Pichia co-inoculations yielded higher levels of glycerol in the final wines. Based on all the wine parameters we tested, the P. kluyveri strain that was isolated performed similarly to a commercial P. kluyveri strain.

Keywords: Aroma; Film formation; Gewürztraminer; Glycerol; Non-Saccharomyces yeasts; Phenethyl acetate; Pichia kluyveri; Pichia kudriavzevii; Wine fermentation.

MeSH terms

Fermentation
Pichia
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Vitis*
Wine* / analysis