Yeasts have a huge influence on the composition and the quality of the final wine. Not only converting the grape sugars into ethanol, but also in the synthesis of a great number of by-products which constitute the final wine organoleptic profile.

The use of microencapsulated, autochthonous and selected starter cultures will allow the wineries to manage the fermentation process and a uniform production of the highest quality wine through successive processes and harvests. The strains will be isolated in the vineyards of the different European wine regions and selected with the direction of the European wineries participating in the project. The wineries will choose the final strains according to their influence on the organoleptic characteristics of the final wine and of their ability to conduct and to finish the alcoholic fermentation correctly. The research will be performed and run by the European research centres involved.

The development of the INNOYEAST project confirms the common effort that the European wine sector is making to defend the European wine quality even over the interest of each wine region industry.

The project is divided into seven work packages:

• WP1. Starting materials and logistics.
• WP2. Isolation, identification and characterization of yeasts.
• WP3. Selection of yeasts.
• WP4. Preparation of microencapsulated yeasts.
• WP5. Industrial wine fermentations.
• WP6. Dissemination.
• WP7. Management.