Impact of two commercial S. cerevisiae strains on the aroma profiles of different regional must

Background: The present research was aimed to investigate the potential of two Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains (EC1118 and AWRI796) to generate wine specific volatile molecule fingerprinting in relation to the initial used must. Methods: Five different musts, adjusted for chemico-physical features, were employed in this research, inoculated at the same level, under the same operational conditions, with the two S. cerevisiae strains, used separately. The wines were analyzed by means of GC/MS/SPME. Quali-quantitative multivariat approaches (tow-way joining, MANOVA and PCA) were used to explain the contribution of the strains, the musts and their interaction to the final wine volatile fingerprinting. Conclusions: The five final wines analyzed for volatile compounds, although characterized by specific aromatic fingerprinting, were principally affected by the grape used, in interaction with the Saccharomyces strain inoculated. In particular, the strain AWRI796 generally resulted in a higher level of alochols and esters. Moreover, the combination of different quali-quantitative multivariate approaches highlighted that the variable strain could have a different weight, with some musts, experiencing a different trend depending on the strain (i.e. Negroamaro, or Magliocco musts).