The phenolic compounds responsible for smoke taint in wine move from odorless glycosides to unbound volatile forms during vinification processes. Little scientific data exists however on how malolactic fermentation (MLF) contributes to this. Previous work found Viniflora® CH16 did not release free taint compounds from bound glycosides1 while anecdotal recommendations are to avoid spontaneous MLF and strains with a high degree of glycosidic activity2 . This work set out to determine the effect of six commercial strains of Oenococcus oeni, by measuring the concentration of seven unbound taint compounds in three affected wines, before and after MLF.

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