Wine yeast selection in the Iberian Peninsula: Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces as drivers of innovation in Spanish and Portuguese wine industries

Abstract

Yeast selection for the wine industry in Spain started in 1950 for the understanding of the microbial ecology, and for the selection of optimal strains to improve the performance of alcoholic fermentation and the overall wine quality. This process has been strongly developed over the last 30 years, firstly on Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and, lately, with intense activity on non-Saccharomyces. Several thousand yeast strains have been isolated, identified and tested to select those with better performance and/or specific technological properties. The present review proposes a global survey of this massive ex-situ preservation of eukaryotic microorganisms, a reservoir of biotechnological solutions for the wine sector, overviewing relevant screenings that led to the selection of strains from 12 genera and 22 species of oenological significance. In the first part, the attention goes to the selection programmes related to relevant wine-producing areas (i.e. Douro, Extremadura, Galicia, La Mancha and Uclés, Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Sherry area, and Valencia). In the second part, the focus shifted on specific non-Saccharomyces genera/species selected from different Spanish and Portuguese regions, exploited to enhance particular attributes of the wines. A fil rouge of the dissertation is the design of tailored biotechnological solutions for wines typical of given geographic areas.

Keywords:

• Hanseniaspora
• Lachancea
• Metschnikowia
• Schizosaccharomyces
• Torulaspora
• wine quality

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

CRediT author statement

Antonio Morata: Conceptualization, Supervision, Validation, Writing-original draft. Teresa Arroyo: Writing-original draft. María Antonia Bañuelos: Writing-original draft. Pilar Blanco: Writing-original draft. Ana Briones: Writing-original draft. Jesús Manuel Cantoral: Writing-original draft. David Castrillo: Writing-original draft. Gustavo Cordero-Bueso: Writing-original draft. Juan Manuel del Fresno: Writing-original draft. Carlos Escott: Writing-Reviewing and Editing. Rocío Escribano-Viana: Writing-original draft. Mónica Fernández-González: Writing-original draft. Sergi Ferrer: Writing-original draft. Margarita García: Writing-original draft. Carmen González: Writing-original draft. Ana Rosa Gutiérrez: Writing-original draft. Iris Loira: Writing-original draft. Manuel Malfeito-Ferreira: Writing-original draft. Alberto Martínez: Writing-original draft. Isabel Pardo: Writing-original draft. Manuel Ramírez: Writing-original draft. Marina Ruiz-Muñoz: Writing-original draft. Pilar Santamaría: Writing-original draft. José Antonio Suárez-Lepe: Supervision, Validation. Alice Vilela: Writing-original draft. Vittorio Capozzi: Conceptualization, Writing- Reviewing and Editing.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.