HYBRIDIZATION AND TYPING OF YEASTS USED IN SPARKLING WINE FERMENTATIONS

Six commercial sparkling wine yeast strains were typed using profiles of total soluble cell proteins, contour clamped homogeneous electric f ield electrophoresis (CHEF), ability to utilize galactose, killer acti vity, cellular fatty acid analysis, and growth in the presence of etha nol. Genetic markers were identified and hybridization produced 60 hyb rid yeast strains that were used in fermentation trials with subsequen t sensory analysis of resultant sparkling wines. The contribution of i ndividual haploids to the quality of a sparkling wine was investigated . Five hybrids that produced sparkling wines of comparable quality to a standard were compared to parental strains.