Of 104 yeasts tested for the hydrolysis of rac-linalyl acetate and rac-alpha-terpinyl acetate twelve hydrolysed rac-linalyl acetate. Five of these belonged to five different species of Geotrichum. The most promising strain, Geotrichum captitatum CBS 0572.82, yielded (S)-linalool in 56% enantiomeric excess after 6h (E value similar to 5, c = 32%). Only one unclassified yeast isolate hydrolyzed rac-alpha-terpinyl acetate with a slight preference for the S-enantiomer (E value similar to 2).