Application of Non-Saccharomyces Yeasts in Wine Production

In the past, Saccharomyces spp. yeasts were almost the only option for use in modern winemaking due to their unparalleled ability to metabolize all grape juice sugar into ethanol. For that reason, until some years ago, all commercial dry yeasts were Saccharomyces spp. For several years, non-Saccharomyces were forgotten at industrial level, and even some of them were considered as spoilage microorganisms. Non-Saccharomyces only played a significant role in limited productions that perform spontaneous fermentations following organic polities. However, during the last decade, several researchers have proved numerous non-Saccharomyces to be able to improve wine quality and to solve some modern enology challenges. Some of the factors that can improve are acidity, aromatic complexity, glycerol content, ethanol reduction, mannoproteins, anthocyanins, and polysaccharide concentrations. They can also decrease the concentrations of unwanted compounds that affect food safety, such as ochratoxin A, ethyl carbamate, and biogenic amines. Due to all those scientific advances, the main manufacturers have just started to commercialize dry non-Saccharomyces such as Torulaspora delbrueckii, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Lachancea thermotolerans, and Pichia kluyveri. Other non-Saccharomyces species with special enology abilities such as Candida zemplinina, Kloeckera apiculata, Hanseniaspora vineae, Hanseniaspora uvarum, C. stellata, Kazachstania aerobia, or Schizosaccharomyces japonicus could follow a similar progress. The aim of the chapter is to show which are the main abilities and advantages of these non-Saccharomyces in modern winemaking.