The wine making properties of fifteen cryophilic strains of
Saccharomyces bayanus, identified on the basis of DNA similarity, electrophoretic karyotyping and fertility experiments, were compared with ten wine yeast strains of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In a laboratory-scale wine making experiments using one liter each of Koshu grape must, all of the
S. bayanus strains showed better fermentability at a low temperature of 7°C. Many of the experimental wines produced by
S. bayanus strains at 7 and 15°C contained larger amounts of glycerol, malic acid and succinic acid and lesser amounts of acetic acid than those produced by
S. cerevisiae strains. Higher alcohols, especially β-phenylethyl alcohol and tyrosol, and β-phenylethyl acetate in the wines fermented with
S. bayanus strains at 15°C were also contained approximately eight (206.4 mg per liter for S. bayanus to 25.4 mg per liter for S. cerevisiae), four (61.7 mg per liter to 16.8), and twelve times (1.62 mg per liter to 0.14) as high as those in the wines fermented with
S. cerevisiae strains on the average, respectively. These results suggest that
S. bayanus is a yeast species possessing ability to produce large amounts of the aroma components in fermentation of grape must with cryophilic character.
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