Thanks to its important impact on wine and spirit quality, yeast selection highly contributes to the diversification of end products. This work assessed the abilities of the active dry yeast SafSpirit™ CO-16 to produce aromatically distinctive Cognac while evaluating its usage flexibility coming from a specific manufacturing process. Through several microvinifications and field trials, this strain showed clean fermentation profiles by significantly decreasing the production of volatile acidity (- 80% in average compared to referent strains), methanol and ethanol. Its overproduction of acetate esters (up to twice more isoamyl acetate and 4.5 times more 2-phenylethyl acetate) and fatty acid ethyl esters (+60% of C8-C12) lead to intensely fruity and floral base wines. Combined with a high production of higher alcohols, these aromas remained after distillation, especially those made on lees, and confers to the final spirit an olfactive as well as gustative richness validated by professional taster panels.

Ester Overexpressing Yeast

Denise Jones

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