A key element, very important in the wine making process, is the yeast. And why is it so important, although measuring 0.003 mm,? Because this live micro-organism transforms the fructose in the grape ethanol, the alcohol present in the wine.
Yeast are all the same ?
No. The yeast that lives in a vineyard of white grape veritals is a different one of the one living in a vineyard of red grape varietals. They are all different, depending of the country or region.
And what are the best?
They all provide different aromas and it is the winemaker that must to choose according to each style or the House goal.
Once that the grapes arrived to the winery, the winemaker has two options: rely on indigenous yeast which is adapted to the local terroir forever, or use a yeast, which most likely originates from another region, possibly in another country, and that was developed in the laboratory to carry out the fermentation in a certain direction of aromas and flavors.
In the Douro region there are two scenarios, depending on whether we are talking about Port Wine or DOC Douro (still wine)...in general for Port wine the quantity is reduced when it takes on using selected yeasts. On the other hand, and contrary to Port wine, for Douro DOC wines, a generous number of producers of quality wines have been using selected yeasts.
The fact that, within the same region, have a type of wine made with foreign yeast and other with indigenous is not surprising given the history of wine.
The Port is a world reference, it has been is copied and falsified in many wine regions of the world.
But due to the uinque weather and soil characteristics together with a long portuguese know-how of the grape growers, the winemakers, the cellars masters, passing from generation to generation since the 17th century, nowhere in the world can make a wine as fantastic as the Port that is in the Douro.
Port Wine winemakers believe that the best yeast for Port wine is the one that is found in the vineyards.
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