Wine, an alcoholic beverage is usually produced from juice of variety of fruits by the fermentative action of microorganisms particularly by yeasts. Several substrates such as pineapple, banana, watermelon, pawpaw and other fruits have been used to produce wine using Saccharomyces species. This study was undertaken using non- Saccharomyces to produce table wine with pineapple and banana fruits as substrates. Standard microbiological procedures were employed for yeasts cell isolation, sugar (sucrose) fermentation test, pH, ethanol, sucrose and glucose tolerance test were carried out respectively. Alcohol production by the yeasts was screened and the isolates were identified by genomic techniques. Twenty-two (22) yeasts isolated from palm wine (YW), banana (YB) and pineapple (YP) were screened for their ability to ferment sugar and fourteen (14) of the yeast isolates were positive while eight (8) were negative. The fourteen (14) isolates were further screened for their ability to tolerate pH, ethanol, sucrose and glucose. Tolerance tests for these fourteen (14) yeast isolates recorded values between a range of 3.0-5.0, 0-10% v/v, 5-20% w/v and 5-25% w/v for pH, ethanol, sucrose and glucose concentrations respectively. Statistically, there was a significant difference in the interaction effect for pH, ethanol, sucrose and glucose tolerance (OD600 nm) for yeast isolates at p value ≤ 0.0001. Five (5) yeast isolates had high tolerance ability to pH, ethanol, sucrose and glucose and were further screened for their ability to produce alcohol. The five (5) yeast isolates were identified as Meyerozyma guilliermondii strain 1621, Pichia guilliermondii strain PX-PAT, Meyerozyma caribbica strain Kw 1S7Y2, Meyerozyma caribbica strain Y-27400, Kodamaea ohmeri strain ww1-1 and they produced alcohol content of 7.6%, 6.5%, 2.9%, 2.5% and 0.3% respectively. Meyerozyma guilliermondii strain 1621 and Pichia guilliermondii strain PX-PAT 18 S isolated from palm wine exhibited good characteristics and produced high quantity of alcohol and are suitable for alcohol fermentation of substrates for wine production.

Wines with different tastes, aromas, colours and acceptability produced through the fermentative action of yeasts are consumed worldwide Several studies have centred on the use of Saccharomyces sp. as the choice yeast for fermentation due to its desirable characteristics; however, in recent years, researches are being focused on alternatives to Saccharomyces sp. This study however was aimed at carrying out a performance evaluation of wine produced by the fermentative action of non-Saccharomyces (Meyerozyma guilliermondii and Pichia guilliermondii). The wines were produced using a mixture of pineapple juice and blended banana pulp as substrate.The fermentation process comprised of two set ups: one was fermented by Meyerozyma guilliermondii strain 1621 and the other was fermented by Pichia guilliermondii strain PAX-PAT 18S. An organoleptic (sensory) evaluation of both wines produced was carried out to ascertain the quality of the wines in comparison to a commercial wine. This was done using a 9-point hedonic scale rating. The wines were evaluated for their organoleptic characteristics including aroma, colour, clarity, taste and overall acceptability. The wine fermented by Meyerozyma guilliermondii had mean values of 7.3, 7.0, 6.4, 3.8 and 6.1 for aroma, colour, clarity, taste and overall acceptability, respectively. The wine fermented by Pichia guilliermondii had mean values of 6.2, 7.1, 5.5, 4.7 and 5.9 for aroma, colour, clarity, taste and overall acceptability, respectively. The commercial wine had mean values of 4.7, 6.6, 7.4, 7.4 and 6.5 for aroma, colour, clarity, taste and overall acceptability, respectively. Statistically, there was significant difference between the aroma of the wines (P≤0.05) while there were no significant differences in colour, clarity, taste and overall acceptability of the wines.  This study shows that acceptable wines can be produced using non-Saccharomyces yeasts like Meyerozyma guilliermondii and Pichia guilliermondii.