MOLDS OF IMPORTANCE IN WINEMAKING

Winemakers and grape growers, alike, are well aware of the damage that mold growth can do to fruit in the field and this often serves as one criteria for payment. Because of the importance of this issue to both groups, the California Department of Food and Agriculture offers third-party inspection of fruit arriving at the winery (For details, see Chapter 4). 

Concerns regarding the presence of aflatoxins on mold-damaged grapes continue to receive attention. The latter are carcinogenic metabolites of the mold Aspergillus flavus. Fortunately, neither the causative species nor 

Because of the potential for mycotoxins in mold-damaged fruit, the decision of whether to accept or reject may eventually go beyond negotiations between the winery and grower and become a regulatory issue. 

Morphological properties, although crucial in identification, depend (as was the case with yeast) on substrate and other conditions of growth. For example, some molds may appear yeastlike when growing under mi-croaerophilic conditions as would be found in bottled juice. The color of the mold colony is frequently used for preliminary field identification of molds. 

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