Suitability of indigenous wine yeast strains identified from spontaneous fermentation as wine fermentation starter cultures

The Measday lab at the University of British Columbia Wine Research Centre has been collaborating with Okanagan Crush Pad (OCP) winery since 2013 to isolate native yeast strains present in OCP vineyards and winery. OCP is an organic winery and routinely carries out natural grape juice fermentations where no commercial wine strains are inoculated into the tanks to allow the natural microflora present on the grape berries to carry out the fermentation and showcase the terroir of their vineyards. The purpose of this proposal is to identify one or two OCP native strains that are suitable for development into commercial wine yeast strains. OCP is excited to have isolated their own indigenous yeast strains from their own vineyards and would like to create wine made from strains that are native to their vineyards. The ultimate goal of this project is to commercialize OCP strains which will benefit the OV and entire Canadian wine community because they can use these strains to carry out wine fermentation instead of commercialized strains that were isolated from European vineyards.

Faculty Supervisor:

Vivien Measday

Student:

Elia Castellanos Lopez

Partner:

Okanagan Crush Pad

Discipline:

Food science

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of British Columbia