Project Number
IWBT 03-01 2005
Project title
Determining factors influencing succinic acid production in wine
Project leader
Van Rensburg, P
Institution
University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of AgriSciences. Institute for Wine Biotechnology
Team members
Lambrechts, M G
Nieuwoudt, H H
De Klerk, J L
Project description
The goals of this project are firstly to understand what the environmental signals are for succinic acid production in wine and secondly to control the yeast to produce succinic acid thereby reducing the need for acid addition. To achieve this we started by doing a literature research. This we used to select specific targets to focus our study on and to develop a more suitable synthetic media. We are currently busy fermenting different commercial yeast to see the different amounts of succinic acid produced between the yeast used. It seems that oxygen seems to play an important role and that the yeast WE372 will also always produced higher levels of succinic acid. We included spectrums of more wines in our organic acid database. As soon as our Winescan is calibrated for succinic acid we will analyse the database statistically.