Test of four generations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae concerning their effect on antioxidant phenolic compounds in wine

Red wine quality is primarily dependent on its phenolic content that confers colour, flavour, healthyproperties, and natural antioxidant activity. The aim of this research was to study the behaviour of70 different Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains concerning their effect on wine content in antioxidantphenolic compounds. This research was carried out using the control strain Zymaflore F15 (LaffortOenologie, France), eight Italian wild types, 12 derived spore clones, 15 hybrids obtained crossingthe derived spore clones, and 34 spore clones derived from the hybrids. Black grapes of theCabernet variety were destemmed, crushed, cold soaked at 4 °C for 3 days and punched down twiceper day. The must obtained after pressing (27°Brix) was inoculated in triplicate at 5% withprecultures of the 70 yeast strains and incubated at 25 °C. At the end of the winemaking the wines,analysed by HPLC for their antioxidant phenolic content, showed highly significant differences, dueexclusively to the wine starter used. In details, catechin content ranged from 0 to 79.53 mg/l (mean31.67), epicatechin content ranged from 0 to 70.51 mg/l (mean 19.24), vanillic acid content rangedfrom 3.10 to 12.71 mg/l (mean 8.72), gallic acid content ranged from 2.54 to 6.77 mg/l (mean 4.82),rutin content ranged from 0 to 11.77 mg/l (mean 3.46), quercetin content ranged from 0 to 2.09 mg/l(mean 1.62), caffeic acid content ranged from 0 to 10.63 mg/l (mean 1.28), trans-resveratrol contentranged from 0 to 0.85 mg/l (mean 0.27). Data validate the main role that wine yeast selection playsto enhance red wine content in antioxidant phenolic compounds.