Impact of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Strain Selection on Malolactic Fermentation by Lactobacillus plantarum and Oenococcus oeni

Nowadays, the simultaneous inoculation of yeast and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is considered a state-of-the-art strategy to reduce overall vinification time and improve microbiological stability of wines. This inoculation protocol drew interest as to how the selection of yeast and LAB strains could modulate malic acid consumption rate and wine composition. The study presented here addresses the impact of combining Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains (with different fermentation rates and nutrition demands) with Lactobacillus plantarum and Oenococcus oeni strains on malic acid consumption and the production of metabolites. S. cerevisiae strains in pure culture fermentations without LAB inoculation exhibited different patterns of malic acid consumption rate and metabolites production. Simultaneous S. cerevisiae and LAB inoculation influenced the kinetics of lactic acid production and titratable acidity content in a manner dependent on the selected LAB strain. The wines undergoing MLF with L. plantarum ML Prime™ finished faster and contained higher levels of L-lactic acid, compared to the respective wines cerevisiae strain used to conduct the alcoholic fermentation. This study reveals new knowledge about the use of L. plantarum in winemaking and shows the effect of S. cerevisiae strains with different enological characteristics, accompanied by LAB or without LAB co-inoculation, on wine composition.