Wine's microorganisms analysed through metagenomics

The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) and UNSW’s Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics have entered into a research partnership to analyse the microorganisms in their ferments.

Grapes are transformed into wine by an entire ecosystem of yeasts and bacteria. In many cases these microbes are ‘wild’, coming from the local environment and appearing naturally in the fermentation once the grapes are crushed. However, like any wild organism, their appearance and behaviour can be erratic, and their overall role in defining regional character of wine largely remains a mystery.

“The important positive impacts of yeast and bacteria on wine flavour are well known but until now the tools to characterise entire regional populations have simply not existed,” said Dr Dan Johnson, managing director of the AWRI.

Now, a technique known as metagenomics will be used to analyse wild wine ferments from around Australia, allowing the identity of all the yeast and bacteria present in the fermentations to be mapped using their unique genomic signatures. The research will be made possible through a combination of the Ramaciotti Centre’s expertise in genome sequencing and the AWRI’s knowledge of wine microorganisms, Dr Johnson said.

Knowledge gained from this work will allow winemakers to take full advantage of local wild yeast and bacteria. It will also enable new yeast and bacteria strains to be developed, drawing on existing regional diversity and the AWRI microbial germplasm collection assembled over the past 50 years.

Professor Marc Wilkins, director of the Ramaciotti Centre, said, “Metagenomics will allow, for the first time, an understanding of the ecosystem of yeast and bacteria in Australian wine production and how that works as part of a successful ferment.”