Last vintage was the first harvest Pichia was commercial available. Had anyone used it before? If so please provide any input.
I was first introduced to this non-sacro yeast at 2011 Fresno State Micro-Biology symposium. Pichia- kluyveri is a newly isolated strain of yeast which was isolated in New Zealand off of Chard. It is recommenced for uses in SB, Chard, Riesling, any fruit forward whites, and roses.
It is manufactured by Christen Hansen and can be obtained at Gusmer in Windsor. The idea is to pitch this yeast right after about destemming after settling and let the pichia ferment up to 4* brix then add your Sacro yeast.
Last year at the symposium I was able to tastes two sets of wines inoculated with pichia Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from a wineries in Australia (I will need to consult my notes to see which winery, but I believe it is owned by Constellation). Both from a control non-pichia (I forget what yeast strains they used, I might be able to find it in my notes), both pichia then pitched with the same yeast as control, and the later which was inoculate with ML bacteria. I was blown away how the pichia had lifted the aromatics of the two wines. Tropical, passion fruits, freshness and citrus notes were bursting from the glass all without over-ripeness. The control was somewhat bland and thin and the wine which went through ML seemed dull to me because of the powerful dialectal notes. It worked well with for the Cahrd and SB in my opinion adding complexity without taking anything away, all the while preserving the aromatic characteristics of the two wines without adding any unneeded weight.
There are a few hurdles with this strain. It comes in only one size. 1kg which treats 2640 gallons. It is must be kept at -40*C and basically has to be delivered day of inoculation making it hard to spread out if you have smaller lots. And the price tag…$500. The price is steep but I believe it is worth the cost because of the positive effects. One of the pluses is that it is the first ever inoculation yeast that can simply be poured into a tank
Anyone interested in trying out pichia email me. I would lkie to “go-in” on a kg of pichia with another winery we have about 600 gallons of SB which leaves enough product to for 2,000/gallons worth of use.
Any and all input is welcomed.
email wynetime (at) gmail (dot) com