Inside Current Winemaking Challenges: Exploiting the Potential of Conventional and Unconventional Yeasts

Abstract

Wine represents a complex matrix in which microbial interactions can strongly impact the quality of the final product. Numerous studies have focused on optimizing microbial approaches for addressing new challenges to enhance quality, typicity, and food safety. However, few studies have investigated yeasts of different genera as resources for obtaining wines with new, specific traits. Currently, based on the continuous changes in consumer demand, yeast selection within conventional Saccharomyces cerevisiae and unconventional non-Saccharomyces yeasts represents a suitable opportunity. Wine fermentation driven by indigenous yeasts, in the various stages, has achieved promising results in producing wines with desired characteristics, such as a reduced content of ethanol, SO₂, and toxins, as well as an increased aromatic complexity. Therefore, the increasing interest in organic, biodynamic, natural, or clean wine represents a new challenge for the wine sector. This review aims at exploring the main features of different oenological yeasts to obtain wines reflecting the needs of current consumers in a sustainability context, providing an overview, and pointing out the role of microorganisms as valuable sources and biological approaches to explore potential and future research opportunities.

Keywords: Saccharomyces cerevisiae; ethanol reduction; fermentation; functional wine; non-Saccharomyces; starter culture; sustainability; wine; wine aroma.

Figure 1

Production share of wine by region [source: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/, accessed on 18 May 2023].

Figure 2

Perception needs of current wine consumers.

Figure 3

Records for “wine sustainability” found in the Web of Science between 2010 and 2021.

Figure 4

Phylogenetic tree showing the 41 yeast species of Saccharomycetales, obtained on the basis of the 18S ribosomal DNA sequence. Adapted from [51]. Schizosaccharomyces pombe (belonging to Schizosaccharomycetales) is represented as the outgroup species. Among the displayed species, the yeast species in the red boxes represent the NS yeasts of oenological interest described in the present review.

Figure 5

Main metabolic pathways in secondary aroma production performed by yeasts.

Figure 6

Wine features resulted from applying different fermentation approaches.