Viniflora® PRELUDE™ - First Torulaspora wine yeast

With its innovative Torulaspora yeast for wine Chr. Hansen offers winemakers the benefit of wild alcoholic fermentations.

PRELUDE caters for demanding winemakers, producing white, blush or red wines (still or sparkling) and looking for additional complexity being closer to wild ferments.

PRELUDE is an extremely innovative product as this is the first time a pure non-Saccharomyces specie is proposed to winemakers as an oenological product. It is a pure strain of Torulaspora delbrueckii and a premium yeast product for wine making because it allows for some of the advantages from wild alcoholic fermentation: mouth feel, complexity and specific flavors in the wine.

"Torulaspora contributes to the special characters these wines have, and Chr. Hansen was the first company in the world to develop this yeast for commercial use. Now, winemakers have the flexibility of using the single strain PRELUDE product," explains Dr. Hentie Swiegers, Head of Department for Wine Innovation, who developed the product with his team in Denmark and tested it in wine regions across the world.

The strain behind PRELUDE yeast has been selected among many others for the strong improvement of the ‘wine value’ it has proven to provide during wine tastings.

‘We have mainly targeted the wine segment that is growing now: bottles of wine at a price between 4.5 € and 14 € (or 7 US$ and 20 US$). Wines produced with the PRELUDE yeast all received higher tasting notes and were rated at higher prices (consumer perception). This is exactly what wineries and winemakers are looking for now: differentiation, value creation and return on investment… Our Torulaspora product has a bright future!” adds Laurent Hubert, Marketing Director for Wine, Chr. Hansen A/S.

There is a global trend for natural products and closer-to-nature production processes. PRELUDE is exactly what demanding winemakers are asking for: a way to achieve alcoholic fermentation with the benefits of spontaneous fermentation but none of the risks. Conventional and organic winemakers around the world are already huge fans of our non-Saccharomyces Torulaspora yeast concept.

Through the expertise we offer to winemakers we have at hand an innovative and growing ‘natural wine tool box’ made of yeast and bacteria catering to the two key success factors: quality (both taste and safety)and differentiation at the same time.