The molecular biology revolution has brought forth significant new
advances with application in microbiological analysis during wine production and
storage. For example, traditional methods for microbial strain identification have
been mostly supplanted in favor of ribosomal RNA-based methods for speciation
of cultured yeast and bacterial populations in wine. Moreover culture-independent
molecular methods now allow for more rapid profiling of complex populations, or
quantification of targeted species, thereby enhancing the information available to
the winemaker. Finally, the availability of microbial genome sequences provides a
wealth of new opportunities to understand and exploit the microorganisms in wine,
as well as identify the key genetic factors underlying wine flavor development or
depreciation. In general, advances in molecular biology are fundamentally changing
how scientists and winemakers assess the microbial ecology of winemaking, providing
new insight into the wonderfully complex conversion of grape juice to wine.