To start with, I just can’t quite write that subject-line without a complaint; I was brought up with sulphur, not sulfur, but since UIPAC took up the American spelling…
Moving swiftly on, I note from the February 2nd issue of ‘Science‘ (Science 2007, 315, 666) that maybe a common compound of sulfur might be responsible for that special smell of a Chablis:
Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UK) have apparently discovered what makes the sea smell like the sea! It seems that the answer is a bacterial gene which they call dddD, which catabolises a bacterial metabolite called DMSP to DMS – or dimethylsulfide. It seems then, that it is DMS that is responsible for the smell of the sea – or in Chablis terms, the smell of the seashore(?)
It seems that, not only can winemakers choose yeasts that make their chardonnay smell of pineapple, but in the future they might be able to add something to give their wines that certain Chablis ‘thing’. The team at the university have already cloned the dddD gene onto E. coli such that the bacteria can produce DMS gas in the presence of DMSP – perhaps it’s only a matter of time until the yeast is available…