Beneficial Effects of Pistacia terebinthus Resin on Wine Making

In this work we studied the use of Pistacia terebinthus resin as carrier of a psychrotolerant and alcohol resistant yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae AXAZ-1 for 27 repeated fermentation batches of white must (12.5 degrees Be) at 28, 21, 14 and 7 degrees C. The immobilized biocatalyst showed high operational stability during this process. Regarding the repeated fermentation batches with free cells, the fermentation time proved to be higher and so ethanol productivity was lower. Extracted terpenes, terpenoids and polyphenols from P. terebinthus resin were detected in the produced wines contributing to their preservation for at least 35 days at room temperature and 95 days at 4 degrees C without any addition of potassium metabisulfite. Those extracted compounds from resin gave also a particular pleasant aroma to the produced wines.