Wine Word of the Week: Yeast



By Kori ~ August 28th, 2012.

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is yeast.

Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine:
Yeast, microscopic, single-celled fungi, having round to oval cells which reproduce by forming buds, are vital to the alcoholic fermentation process, which, starved of oxygen, transforms grape juice into wine. Sugars are used as an energy source by yeast, with ethanol and carbon dioxide as major by-products of the reactions.

Layman’s terms from Kori:
Yeast is the microscopic organism responsible for the fermentation of grape juice into wine by converting sugar into alcohol.


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