Résumé
Le Château de l’Escarelle winery is a reference within the CVP appellation. With 100 ha of planted vines and a total natural area of 1000 ha, it has established itself in the region as a model to follow. In organic agriculture since 2020, this domain has sought to continually improve since its acquisition in 2017. And this was seen with the increase in quality of generic vintages like Palm, the best-selling by the company. To remain a major player in its sector, Escarelle does not hesitate to carry out experiments, which is what led them to test bio- acidification. This subject at the basis of this dissertation attempts to respond to current issues, namely: climate change, new standards on labeling and consumer’s views on the products they buy. Bio-acidification using L.thermotolerans, a yeast with a rather special metabolism producing lactic acid, should make it possible to respond at least in part to these problems. Greater freshness in the wines and a reduction in inputs such as tartaric acid were the two main objectives of this experiment. To carry out the latter we worked with a strain called X-Fresh, developed by Lamothe-Abiet laboratories. Since this yeast cannot ferment all the sugars in the musts, it must be assisted by S.cerevisiae. We therefore carried out a sequential inoculation with firstly X-Fresh and 62 secondly So.delight a strain of S.cerevisiae. This had the desired effects, the acidity skyrocketed and the pH dropped significantly. The tasters clearly felt a big difference between the teltales and the bio-acidified modality. In the future this type of fermentation, producing too much acid to be sold as such, will be used on a small volume of wine which will be essential at the time of blending to enhance vintages lacking acidity and freshness.