A survey of ochratoxin A occurence in Greek wines.

A total of 150 wines, including 123 dry wines (64 red, 49 white and 10 rosé) and 27 dessert wines (14 red and 13 white), were obtained from various viticulture and oenological practices across Greece during the period 1999-2006 and analyzed for ochratoxin a (OTA) using immunoaffinity clean-up and HPLC with fluorescence detection. There was a high frequency of OTA in commercially available wines (69% positive samples). However, the level of contamination was relatively low, with only one sample marginally reaching the EU permitted maximum level (2.

Impact of water activity and temperature on growth and ochratoxin A production of two Aspergillus carbonarius isolates from wine grapes in Greece.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of water activity (a(w); 0.85 to 0.98) and temperature (10 to 40 degrees C) on the radial growth rate and ochratoxin A (OA) production of two Aspergillus carbonarius isolates in vitro.

Yeast community structures and dynamics in healthy and Botrytis-affected grape must fermentations.

Indigenous yeast population dynamics during the fermentation of healthy and Botrytis-affected grape juice samples from two regions in Greece, Attica and Arcadia, were surveyed. Species diversity was evaluated by using restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequence analyses of the 5.8S internal transcribed spacer and the D1/D2 ribosomal DNA (rDNA) regions of cultivable yeasts.