Yeasts for the sustainability in viticulture and oenology : the “YesVite” Project

The YeSVitE project faces the ongoing process of innovation in winemaking taking into account the continuous challenge of the development of sustainable production practices and new food products. The relevance of the programme stems for providing insights and solutions for sustainable wine production in the new millennium through better exploitation of the genetic and metabolic potential of yeasts, while providing new or better answers to questions such as how to produce economically and environmentally sustainable quantities of wines of high quality, or “typical” and traditional wines, and how to produce a healthier product. The main activities of YeSVitE address the safety and quality of wine throughout the exploitation of the yeast biodiversity, the development of strains characterised by genetic and phenotypic traits that can modify the final product, and the investigation of natural interactions between grape and wine-related microbes to propose alternative solutions for a sustainable viticulture and oenology. YeSVitE has seen the birth of a consortium composed by seven research units with relevant expertise in the study of yeasts as model organisms and as key tools for wine and biotechnological applications. All the involved partners of the network improve the programme with novel knowledge and skills since they operate in areas of unique interest and are characterised by a strong know-how in winemaking. The project is organised in four work packages that are expected to be completed in four years of joint activity.