Given that different wine production schemes and regional styles foster different
microbial consortia, it is not unreasonable to assume a sort of microbial “terroir”
which, in part, endows specific wineries and winemaking styles with a particular
flavor profile. However, fully viewing the underlying microbial changes inherent in
such environments is problematic. The advent of inexpensive DNA sequencing
technologies has now fostered a new approach, metagenomic sequencing, in which
all DNA present in a particular environmental niche are cloned and sequenced.
Such approaches are now frequently used to profile both the microbial diversity,
and also the encoded metabolic capacity from environments (Tyson, et al. 2004).
From such an approach it is easy to imagine how a robust description of the microbial
community in a specific wine fermentation could be revealed. Moreover the
resultant sequence description would reveal the underlying genetic potential within
such a fermentation, enabling in silico metabolic reconstructions and comparisons
(e.g., temporal changes within a fermentation or comparison between fermentations),
all without considering microbial cell wall boundaries. In essence the aggregate
microbiota of the wine fermentation itself could be considered a “super-organism”
with defined metabolic capacity. It is from these types of approaches that in silico
metabolic models can be generated from complex ecosystems. With such models
in hand, future researchers—and winemakers—will have an abundance of information
to ensure more flavorful and consistent fermentations in the years to come.