Lachancea Thermotolerans Applications in Modern Wine Microbiology

Abstract

The traditional wine microbiology methodologies to make wine are based on the use of only one conventional yeast species during alcoholic fermentation, known as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Another conventional wine microorganism is the conventional lactic bacteria species Oenococcus oeni that performs the second wine fermentation known as malolactic fermentation. Those traditional winemaking methodologies make conventional wines from a wine microbial point of view. The presentation shows the modern applications of the nonconventional wine species Lachancea thermotolerans. It shows a modern winemaking biotechnology that lets growing several quality parameters such as acidity, color or aroma, while reducing the incidence of wine modern health risky compounds such as ethyl carbamate or biogenic amines. The central use of Lachancea thermotolerans in current winemaking is to raise the acidity of grape juices from warm areas such as the south of Europe where the acidity is dramatically low due to the extreme metabolic rate of vine plants under high temperatures during the plant development period. Lachancea thermotolerans is able to produce lactic acid that can compensate the decreases in malic and tartaric acids under those extreme conditions. Although this factor is the most known application of Lachancea thermotolerans in modern winemaking, new advances shows that its use can increase other important quality parameters such as aroma, color and food safety. Recent Publications 1. Benito Á, Calderón F, Palomero F and Benito S (2015) Combine use of selected Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Lachancea thermotolerans yeast strains as an alternative to the traditional malolactic fermentation in red wine production. Molecules 20(6):9510-9523. 2. Benito Á, Calderón F and Benito S (2016) Combined use of S. pombe and L. thermotolerans in winemaking: Beneficial effects determined through the study of wines’ analytical characteristics. Molecules 21(12):1744. 3. Benito Á, Calderón F, Palomero F and Benito S (2016) Quality and composition of Airén wines fermented by sequential inoculation of Lachancea thermotolerans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Food Technology and Biotechnology 54(2):135-144. 4. Benito Á, Calderón F and Benito S (2017) The combined use of Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Lachancea thermotolerans effect on the anthocyanin wine composition. Molecules 22(5):739. 5. Benito S (2018) The impacts of Lachancea thermotolerans yeast strains on winemaking. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology 1-16.