WINEDRYEAST – Exploitation of local biodiversity of yeasts for wine production – is a Romanian–Hungarian EUREKA project (E!13371), submitted to the PN-III EUREKA 2019 call (code PN-III-P3-3.5-EUK-2019-0213) and funded by UEFISCDI under contract no. 258/2021, starting on 18.09.2021. It is coordinated by ICA Research & Development, with Dr. Eng. Mihaela Begea as project director, and draws on the microbial biodiversity of the Pietroasa vineyard.
Objectives
The main scientific and technical objective of the project was the isolation, characterisation and use of autochthonous yeasts to improve the sensory qualities of wine produced from native varieties of the Pietroasa vineyard (Romania). The project aimed at:
- isolating yeasts from the Pietroasa wine-growing area and selecting them to obtain active dry yeasts;
- optimising the bioprocesses for producing yeast biomass and white and red wines;
- scaling the processes up to pilot level;
- producing personalised wines by controlled fermentation, following the terroir concept;
- validating the technologies and protecting industrial property.
Results
- Strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and non-Saccharomyces species were isolated in pure culture and identified by classical and molecular techniques (MALDI-TOF, PCR).
- The strains were tested for yeast biomass production at laboratory, micropilot and pilot level, with fermentations carried out mainly on grape must in order to preserve the typicality of the wine.
- Wines inoculated with different indigenous yeasts could be differentiated by discriminant factor analysis; analyses by the Hungarian partners showed that the dominant aroma is generated by S. cerevisiae, with Lachancea thermotolerans having a smaller influence and Torulaspora delbrueckii the smallest.
- The technologies and products based on yeast biomass, and the wines obtained with these yeasts, were validated.
- Two strains (S. cerevisiae 35 and Lachancea thermotolerans 33) were deposited with the National Collection of Agricultural and Industrial Microorganisms (NCAIM).
- Two patent applications were filed with OSIM (the Romanian State Office for Inventions and Trademarks): “Obtaining active biomass of wine yeast Lachancea thermotolerans” and “Obtaining active biomass of wine yeast S. cerevisiae”.
- Results were disseminated through papers, posters and presentations, including at the OIV conference and at the Eureka Global Innovation Summit (GIS2024), Istanbul, 13–14 June 2024.
Partners
- ICA Research & Development SRL – coordinator
- Pharmacorp Innovation SRL – partner
- University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest (USAMV) – partner
- Széchenyi István University, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Mosonmagyaróvár (Hungary) – partner
- ADEXGO Kft., Correltech division (Hungary) – partner
The Hungarian partners carried out the electronic nose, electronic tongue and NIR spectroscopy analyses; the Hungarian side was funded separately in Hungary (code 2019-2.1.1-EUREKA-2020-00011).
The annual project meeting of Phase 4 was held at USAMV Bucharest together with the Hungarian partners.
Stage reports
The scientific and technical reports for the five stages are available below as PDF files.