WINES MADE FROM
POLLINATOR-RELATED FERMENTATIONS
Bees and apoids have an importance that goes beyond their role as pollinators and in the case of fermentations concerns the preservation and dissemination of the microbial stock that influences the composition of wine: flavor, quality and typicality (terroir).
IN THE BRANDED WINES VOLA VOLÉ
Yeasts are selected from pollen from beehives placed near plants in our area: hawthorn, chestnut, blackberry, cherry, sulla and clover.
IN WINES BRANDED VOLA VOLÉ MAIELLA NATIONAL PARK
The yeasts are selected, in collaboration with Maiella National Park, from fruits (“mbriachelli”) in mountain areas not yet contaminated by pesticides and agriculture. Mountains represent one of the few refuge areas for microbial biodiversity (wild ancestral yeasts).
NATURE HAS LINKED INSECTS AND YEASTS WITH MUTUALISMS ESSENTIAL FOR FERMENTATIONS
Insects (especially bees and apoids) protect, evolve and spread yeasts:
– Yeast cells benefit from this association as they find shelter in the insect gut during times of sugar shortage and/or winter cold;
– The gut becomes a reservoir and evolutionary niche for yeasts as through mating (sexual reproduction) it ensures survival, evolution (production of interspecific hybrids);
– Yeasts not being mobile need wind and insects (bees and apoids, beetles, butterflies and others) to be transferred to the grapes.
Yeasts signal the presence of sugars and enhance the nutrition of the insect.
They provide insects with a signal of the presence of sugar; yeast cells fermenting sugar substrates produce volatile compounds (isoamyl acetate, ethyl acetate and others) that launch a strong call to insects (bees and apoids), which thereby detect naturally occurring sugar substrates. In addition, yeast, which is present in the insect’s digestive system, supports the insect’s larval development by supplying it with nicotinic acid, vitamin B, pantothenic acid, inositol, choline, beta-alanine, and other molecules (Tatum, 1941) that are essential for larval development and copulation.
Maintaining the connection of fermented foods to the land requires the maintenance of their microbial communities. Since the postwar period, agriculture has been fighting a chemical war against insects, but the results are basically saying that if we continue to kill bees and apoids (including other pollinating insects) we lose a key part of the earth’s ecological cycle.
Insects and yeasts in BIO Cantina Orsogna members’ organic and/or biodynamic vineyards are safe away from chemical fertilizers, pesticides and weed killers.
