The Influence of Yeast Strains on the Volatile Flavour Compounds of Chinese Rice Wine

In order to assess the influence of yeast strains on volatile flavour profiles of Chinese rice wine, small-scale Chinese rice wine brewing was carried out with eight yeast strains from three different typical Chinese rice wine brewing regions. The volatile flavour compounds were extracted by headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The volatile flavour profiles of the different Chinese rice wines showed statistically significant differences depending on the yeast strains used. Yeast strains from the Shaoxing region showed a higher capacity to produce the esters 2-phenylethanol and 3-methylthiopropanol, while yeast strains from the Shanghai region stood out for their production of branched-chain higher alcohols. Chinese rice wine fermented with a yeast strain from the Jiangsu region had the highest levels of organic acids. Using principal component analysis of the Chinese rice wine volatile flavour compounds, the eight yeast strains could be classified into three groups according to their origins. This is the first report about the volatile flavour characteristics of Chinese rice wine yeast. The data obtained in this work shows that the yeast strains contributed significantly to the flavour differences of the Chinese rice wines from the different regions.