Abstract: To obtain suitable yeast for Vidal icewine production, a rapid selection procedure was proposed in this study. Nine Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains were selected from spontaneous fermentation of Vidal icewine in Huanren region by determining their tolerance to ethanol and SO2. The oenological evaluation in a flask and a fermenter showed that all the isolates could complete the alcoholic fermentation of Vidal icewine and produced different aroma profiles as compared to the commercial strain DV10 as evidenced by principal component analysis (PCA). SC42 and SC45, isolated at the final stage of spontaneous fermentation, were finally selected for their high fermentation activity. SC42 produced higher amounts of higher alcohol and esters along with a lower amount of acetic acid, while SC45 generated higher levels of glycerol, esters, trans-rose oxide and β-damascenone. Our present results proved the feasibility of this simple method to select suitable yeast strains for icewine industrial production, and also suggested that using indigenous Saccharomyces strains is a feasible way to improve the aroma quality and diversity of icewine products.

Key words: Vidal icewine, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, spontaneous fermentation, strain selection, aroma compounds