Effect of oxygen and lipid supplementation on the volatile composition of chemically defined medium and Chardonnay wine fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae

► Oxygen and lipids, which stimulate yeast growth and fermentation, affected production of esters, alcohols and acids. ► Oxygen or lipids or their combination had differential effects on wine composition. ► Generally similar trends were observed in grape juice and a model medium. ► Lipids and oxygen supplementation provide greater flexibility in modulating wine flavour. Oxygen or lipids are required to complete stressful alcoholic fermentation. Lack of these nutrients can inhibit sugar uptake and growth, which leads to incomplete or ‘stuck’ fermentation. Oxygen or lipids supplementation not only restores yeast fermentative activity and also affects formation of yeast volatile metabolites. To clarify the effect of oxygen and lipid supplementation on the formation of flavour active metabolites during wine fermentation, we evaluated the addition of these two nutrients to chemically defined grape juice and filter clarified Chardonnay must. Lipid addition increased the concentration of esters, higher alcohols and volatile acids, whereas oxygen increased the concentration of higher alcohols and altered the proportion of acetate to ethyl esters and the proportion of branch-chain acids to medium-chain fatty acids. Combined addition of lipids and oxygen showed an additive effect on concentration of higher alcohols whereas oxygen suppressed the enhancing effect of lipids on formation of esters and volatile acids. Our results demonstrate the potential of lipid and oxygen supplementation for the manipulation of wine aroma in white wine fermentation.