Effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Torulaspora delbrueckii and malolactic fermentation on fermentation kinetics and sensory property of black raspberry wines

Alcoholic fermentation (AF) and malolactic fermentation (MLF) both have significant influence on the production of black raspberry wine. In this study, three microbes associated with AF and MLF including S. cerevisiae, T. delbrueckii and O. oeni were used to investigate their combined effect on basic compositional, volatile and sensory property of black raspberry wine, and four fermentation trials including single S. cerevisiae inoculation plus spontaneous MLF (BSU) and controlled MLF with O. oeni (BSO), sequential culture of T. delbrueckii and S. cerevisiae plus spontaneous MLF (BTSU) and controlled MLF (BTSO) were tested and compared. Fermentation results showed MLF in BSU, BSO and BTSO were successful, with respective period of 40, 25 and 23 days, whereas a stuck MLF occurred in BTSU. Volatile compounds were determined by HS-GC-IMS method, with a total of 45 aromas identified. BTSO was distinguished by a significant higher signal intensity of many fruity esters and a lower production of several alcohols and terpenes, which was in agreement with its perception result of strong 'fruity' and slight note of 'solvent' and 'herbaceous' during quantitative descriptive analysis. On the contrary, BSU was found to reinforce the synthesis of most detected volatiles, resulting in the enhancement of both beneficial and off-flavour compounds, therefore scoring lower in the 'global aroma' descriptor. Principal component analysis showed BSU and BSO were similar in the volatile composition, whereas BTSO was quite different. Overall, BTSO had greater potential to be used in the production of black raspberry wine.