It has been suggested that medium chain fatty acid(MCFA) may be toxic to yeast and bacteria and thus play a role in the inhibition of alcoholic and malolactic fermentations and also important contributors to wine flavour We measured, by the use of GLC, the concentrations of octanoic, decanoic and dodecanoic acids produced by 12 wine yeast strains during the alcoholic fermentation of a grape juice-like medium. In general, there was a high production of MCFA at first, dropping dramatically later. The formation of MCFA is largely dependent on yeast strain but it also depends upon temperature, sugar concentration, stirring and carbon dioxide sparging.