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Javier Urtasun

Guk

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urtasun@guk.es

(+34) 637273728

2010/7/27

Guserbiot develops the first indigenous yeast for Rioja Alavesa wines

The Basque biotech company Guserbiot has developed the first indigenous yeast for Rioja Alavesa wines together with the Leia Foundation and the wine cellars Marqués de Riscal and Baigorri. The so-called GBiot EL 011-S yeast has already been patented and placed in the market for the 2010 vintage.

Wine derives from a complex biochemical process in which Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast responsible for the metabolic process transforming must's sugars into ethanol, plays a key role in the alcoholic fermentation process.

For more than 20 years, nearly all wine producers from the different designations of origin add foreign commercial yeasts, imported from countries such as France or Australia, to the wine manufacturing process.

These commercial yeasts offer optimum results; however, they provide certain bouquet and flavour standardisation in the wine. Therefore, the designations of origin from different wine-producing areas in the world are looking for the differentiation from other competitors by strengthening the identity of their respective wines through the development of indigenous yeasts.

This new product is fruit of 6-year research in Guserbiot, that jointly with A&B Laboratorios de Biotecnología make up the group ABG Biotech. The project has received financial support from the funding programmes for research, development and innovation of the Provincial Council of Alava and the Basque Country.