Ester Concentration Differences in Wine Fermented by Various Species and Strains of Yeasts

Abstract

Fourteen pure-culture wine yeasts were found to produce white wines with significantly different individual ester concentrations. The esters quantified, by glass capillary gas chromatography, were isoamyl acetate (including active amyl acetate), ethyl hexanoate, hexyl acetate, ethyl octanoate, 2-phenethyl acetate, and ethyl decanoate. The complex relationships for each ester due to the yeast used for fermentation are illustrated. From analysis of variance of the total-ester content in the wines, only <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> (U.C.D. Enology 586) was found to be significantly different (.01 level) from the other yeasts examined.