ASEV in Reno and the Secret Sex Life of Yeast

I went to the ASEV convention in Reno last Wednesday, not for any of the seminars but for the trade show. I was on a barrel quest - looking for oak for the 2007 harvest - several of the cooperages had reps there with info on their barrels and some had wines that had been aged in specific barrels to taste and compare.

I’m thinking of acquiring a lot of Canton barrels - 36 month air-dried staves, Pennsylvania oak, medium plus toast. The differences between cooperages and the flavors their barrels impart to the wine is remarkable. This particular Canton barrel lengthens the finish on the wine and adds a spicy note, something I’m looking for to enhance our Zinfandel.

I also talked to Lallemand and Lalvin reps regarding yeasts and fermentation supplements - nutrients, enzymes, etc. There are some new hybrid yeasts on the market now, Lallemand BM 4×4 is one of these; a hybrid of BM45 and another ‘unnamed’ yeast. I’m going to try some of this yeast on our Zin as BM45 has always been a favorite of ours.

Lallemand says “BM 4×4 is a combination of yeast strains that have been specially seleetec for the positive synergies to optimize the sensory profile of wine and reliably regulate fermentation with a timeframe.” Huh? Sounds like marketing BS to me but the upshot of this is that the yeast purports to increase color stability, lowers astringency, decrease VA and enhance MLF.

These yeasts are not genetically engineered, they are naturally-occuring yeast crosses and/or lab-created yeast crosses. Again - NOT genetically engineered, they’re just messing with the sex life of yeast. I don’t know how the lab geeks help the yeaties get their freak on, but the tests and analysis show that the hybrids do work as advertised.

There’s also a new yeast from Anchor that’s rep’d by Scott Laboratories, another hybrid. Because we ferment in small lots we can keep different yeasts separate through the fermentation and aging process and my contacts at Scott are interested in seeing the results of our use of these yeasts.

More on this as the year progresses…….

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Winemaking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.