The aim of this study is to isolate and select indigenous yeasts from alcoholic fermentation starters and to produce yeast starters for rice wine fermentation. A collection of 27 yeast isolates was purified from 10 commercial starters collected in Can Tho city, Vietnam. All isolates were recorded for the colony and cell characteristics and screened gas formation in Durham tubes containing 2% (v/v) of glucose. Ethanol production test was carried out in 250-mL flasks containing 100 mL of MF7 medium at 30ºC for 5 days under anaerobic condition. Preliminary alcoholic starter was prepared by using the selected yeast isolate with the mixture of 80% of rice powder and 20% of corn powder as the substrates. The fermentative capacity of rice starters were evaluated at level of 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.25% (w/v) in 100 mL of saccharified rice liquid (20ºBrix) for 2, 3 and 4 days of fermentation at 30ºC. The results showed that almost yeast colonies were smooth and rough surface, cream and white color, and cells were spherical, ovoid, and ellipse. The isolate TNL2 was found as the good candidate for ethanol fermentation, in which gas formation was reached the maximum volume of Durham tube (30 mm) in 10 hours and ethanol concentration was 7.81% (v/v) after 5 days of fermentation. The starters were successfully produced with substrates of rice and corn powder (ratio 8:2) and the yeast concentration was 2.4x109 cells/g. Ethanol concentration was highest (11.66% v/v) when using 0.75% (w/v) of starter for 4 days of fermentation and this result was significantly different in comparison to other treatments.