(BeverageDaily) - Chr. Hansen claims its new wine culture is a ‘fantastic launch’ that will greatly increase the speed and predictability of malolactic fermentation and remove the need for producers to use sulfites as preservatives.

Laurent Hubert, marketing direcotr for wine cultures at the Danish-headquartered company told BeverageDaily.com it isolated the trademarked strain from fermenting grape juice after it gained access to the culture collection of Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

Working with Prof. Maret du Toit from the university, Hubert said it took around three years fir Chr. Hansen to progress from first discussions and isolating the strain to field trails with wineries and the launch today.

'Outstadnding outcomes' in the field trails

Last year Chr. Hansen worked with eight wineries to conduct field trails using the strain in warm climate regions - Southern France, Spain and Italy - and Hubert said this led to "outstanding outcomes", with the first wines perhaps available from June/July 2014.