Winemaking from Gaglioppo grapes with hybrid strains of Saccharomyces

The fermentative behaviour of two hybrid wine yeast strains (first-generation hybrid-strain 12,233x6167 - obtained by hybridization of the cryotolerant strain S. bayanus 12,233 with the mesophilic strains S. cerevisiae 6,167, and TT254x6392 arizing by hybridization of the thermotolerant strain S. cerevisiae TT254 with the mesophilic strain S. cerevisiae 6,392) was compared with that of a commercial wine yeast strain S. cerevisiae K1 in must from black grapes of the Calabrian variety Gaglioppo. The goal was to obtain wines with a high concentration of polyphenols from a grape must with a limited phenolic concentration such as the Gaglioppo must. The progress of the winemaking was estimated according to residual sugars; at the end of fermentation, the wines were decanted, bottled and prinicpal physico-chemical characteristics determined. Our results point to the possibility to select wine yeasts by their ability to interact with phenolic compounds.