Wild Yeast

Wild Yeast

Wild Yeast. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.

Lately, Washington State University has been playing with wild yeast, the yeast that naturally grows on grapes to see what kind of impact it might have on the wine being produced. Kestrel Vintners winemaker, Flint Nelson has been making smaller batches of wild yeast wines and says:

NELSON: A wild yeast may not be able to get a ferment to go dry and they may have off flavors. It's kind of chance that you are taking. You never know exactly what you are going to get when you use a yeast that is living on the grapes or from the soil or wherever.

Obviously a bad batch of wine with off flavors is not bottled but Nelson says they can make some more exclusive kinds of wines.

NELSON: Often you can get some really unusual and interesting flavor and that's why people do it. Kind of the benefit out weighs the risk. We do a wild yeast chardonnay which is in our winemakers tier so it's a little higher tier at $40 a bottle. It's special. We don't make a lot of it and it usually has just a little more complexity and interest than just your standard chardonnay.

The team at WSU has found 55 species of yeast – including a new one - on grapes from around the state. That's more than have been found anywhere in the world but as one researcher said, it may be just because they are actively looking. Nelson says it's a much more natural process.

NELSON: You just naturally let it happen. So you are going to press the grapes into the barrels and you just don't do anything. Leave them alone.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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