Four yeast strains isolated from fermenting botrytized grape musts in the Tokaj wine region of Hungary are shown to represent a new osmotolerant and psychrotolerant species. The new species, Candida zemplinina (type strain 10-372(T)=CBS 9494(T)=NCAIM Y016667(T)), is closely related to Candida stellata, a yeast common on overripe grapes and in sweet fermenting wines. The sequence of the D1/D2 domain of the C. zemplinina 10-372(T) 26S rDNA shows 8.1 % sequence difference when compared to its counterpart in C. stellata CBS 157(T). In the conserved 5.8S gene of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region the difference is 8 %. The D1/D2 domain differs only at two nucleotides from the homologous sequence of a yeast strain isolated from botrytized grapes in California, suggesting that C. zemplinina is a wine yeast that occurs in geographically distant localities.