ABSTRACT
Modern wine production contributes significantly to the economies of many countries. The rapid expansion of wine grape cultivation in the New World wine-producing countries, together with the worldwide decline in alcoholic beverage consumption, however, resulted in an everincreasing gap between wine production and wine consumption (Bisson et al. 2002; Pretorius and Bauer 2002). Fierce competition for market share has become the driving force behind the enhancement of wine quality, purity, uniqueness, and diversity by developing specialized yeast starter culture strains for specific styles of wine.
