Additionally, once colonies do appe

Additionally, once colonies do appear on a plate,
definitive identification of the microbe requires further testing. More importantly,
culture-based techniques typically underestimate the size and diversity of a population
as sublethally injured or viable, but non-culturable (VBNC) cells, common in
wine, may fail to grow on plates (Kell, et al. 1998; Millet and Lonvaud-Funel
2000). Understanding this difference between a true total cell count and a culturable
population is important as VBNC or injured cells are still metabolically active.