Evaluation of Indigenous Candida oleophila and Candida boidinii in Monoculture and Sequential Fermentations: Impact on Ethanol Reduction and Chemical Profile in Chilean Sauvignon Blanc Wines

Abstract

The study of non-Saccharomycesyeasts in wine fermentations allows the exploration of newalternatives for the reduction of ethanol in wines. The objective of this work was to evaluate thefermentation capacity of two indigenousCandidayeasts (C. oleophilaandC. boidinii) in monocultureand sequential fermentations (laboratory and microvinification scale) to produce Chilean SauvignonBlanc wine. Fermentations were monitored by the determination of ethanol, glycerol, organic acids,and residual sugars. The results indicated that at the laboratory scale for both the monocultureand sequential fermentations it was possible to reduce the ethanol concentration on 0.77%v/v(monoculture) and 1.5%v/v(sequential) forC. oleophilaand 0.50%v/v(monoculture) and 0.04%v/v(sequential) forC. boidiniicompared toS. cerevisiae(12.87%v/v). Higher glycerol concentrationswere produced in monoculture than sequential fermentations (C. oleophila: 9.47 g/L andC. boidinii10.97 g/L).For microvinifications, the monoculture and sequential fermentations withC. boidiniimanaged to reduce ethanol content by 0.17%v/vand 0.54%v/v, respectively, over theS. cerevisiaecontrol (13.74%v/v). In the case ofC. oleophila, the reduction was only observed in sequentialfermentations with 0.62%v/v. Interestingly, grapes with higher sugar concentration resulted in wineswith lees ethanol concentrations. This might be associated to the use of C. oleophila (13.12% v/v) and C. boidinii (13.20% v/v) in sequential fermentations microvinification scale.