Invention Can Turn Red Wine By-products
Into Yoghurt, Chocolates, Creams and More

ScienceDaily (18 September 2009) — Two years ago, a group of friends were enjoying a glass of wine in the Mosel region in south-west Germany when their conversation turned to the health benefits which studies attribute to the drink. During the fermentation process of making wine, by-products are left over which are often just discarded as waste and the friends reasoned that since these by-products contain the goodness of wine in an even more concentrated form, and without the alcohol, shouldn't it be more often used and consumed by humans?

Winemaking Enhanced by DNA Technology

ScienceDaily (19 Nov 2009) — In winemaking, pilule grape juice is turned to wine during the fermentation process by the action of a number of essential beneficial microorganisms —namely bacteria.  Sometimes, though, harmful bacteria also populate the fermentation vat, spoiling the wine in the process.

As part of her doctoral research, researcher Lucia Blasco of MTT developed new methods based on DNA identification for rapidly and accurately identifying detrimental lactic acid bacteria and acetic acid bacteria during the earliest stages of the wine fermentation process.