Traditional sparkling wines produced in wineries can be improved using new biotechnological approaches.
Among the possible biotechnological approaches in this session we focus on two aspects: the use of a new strain of lactic acid bacteria and the use of yeasts immobilized on wood chips.
By using a process of “training” and stress adaptation, we were able to obtain homo-fermentative lactic acid bacteria adapted to grape must conditions, capable of fermenting sugars (with lactic acid as the only end product), growing and coexisting with yeasts, and rapidly carrying out malolactic fermentation.
This results in wines that are more acidic at the end (even with full MLF), fresher and more floral. It also avoids the risk of unwanted malolactic fermentation in the bottle.
In the second part of the paper, we focus instead on the immobilization of yeasts on oak chips for the second fermentation in the bottle: this avoids the use of adjuvants that settle very quickly and also results in more complex and balanced sparkling wines.