Identifying the Main Drivers in Microbial Diversity for Cabernet Sauvignon Cultivars from Europe to South Africa: Evidence for a Cultivar-Specific Microbial Fingerprint

Abstract

Microbial diversity in vineyards and in grapes has generated significant scientific interest. From a biotechnological perspective, vineyard and grape biodiversity has been shown to impact soil, vine, and grape health and to determine the fermentation microbiome and the final character of wine. Thus, an understanding of the drivers that are responsible for the differences in vineyard and grape microbiota is required. The impact of soil and climate, as well as of viticultural practices in geographically delimited areas, have been reported. However, the limited scale makes the identification of generally applicable drivers of microbial biodiversity and of specific microbial fingerprints challenging. The comparison and meta-analysis of different datasets is furthermore complicated by differences in sampling and in methodology. Here we present data from a wide-ranging coordinated approach, using standardized sampling and data generation and analysis, involving four countries with different climates and viticultural traditions. The data confirm the existence of a grape core microbial consortium, but also provide evidence for country-specific microbiota and suggest the existence of a cultivar-specific microbial fingerprint for Cabernet Sauvignon grape. This study puts in evidence new insight of the grape microbial community in two continents and the importance of both location and cultivar for the definition of the grape microbiome.

Microbiota Ecosystem Services in Vineyards and Wine: A Review

“…Differences in the spatial patterns of microbial communities in vineyards are expressed at different scales. Considerable differences have been observed between vineyards in different parts of the world [92] and between wine-growing regions [93][94][95][96]; however, landscape factors and local variations in the ecological niche are known to produce significant differences at the local scale [97][98][99][100]. Intra-vineyard variability is also a significant factor as differences in microbial composition can be even greater than between plots [101,102].…”

“…Intra-vineyard variability is also a significant factor as differences in microbial composition can be even greater than between plots [101,102]. Hence, it is possible to identify a hierarchy within spatial distances, following a broad trend whereby the diversity of microbiota rises with the distance [63], while a common core of genera, or even species, has been described globally [92] (Figure 1).…”

“…Climate and soil differences between areas contribute to microbial community dissimilarities between vineyards [103,104]. At the wine-growing landscape scale, the factors behind these spatial patterns are also related to vineyard practices [97,[105][106][107], grape variety [85,92,98], and microclimate conditions [98,99,108,109]. The surrounding ecosystems also seem to be involved in the composition of microbial communities in vineyards.…”