After the diploma and master studies in oenology at Geisenheim and at the Justus-Liebig‑University (JLU) Giessen, including a practical semester at the University of Copenhagen, I got an offer as a Ph.D. student at the Hochschule Geisenheim University (HGU) financed by the FHprofUnt program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. My first supervisor was Prof. Dr. Doris Rauhut (Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, HGU) who accompanied me in my scientific carrier for many years. The supervisor at the JLU‑Giessen was Prof. Dr. Gertrud Morlock (Faculty 09 Agricultural Sciences, Nutritional Sciences, and Environmental Management), the third reviewer was Associate Prof. Nils Arneborg (Department of Food Science, Microbiology and Fermentation, University of Copenhagen).

I could access the facility, knowledge and experience of several institutes and scientists to combine them in a complex project. Several persons in different institutes in Geisenheim kindly helped me. Especially working with Dr. Claus‑Dieter Patz and Dr. Keshav Kumar (both Department of Beverage Research) was highly beneficial. I am grateful for their  support. During my Ph.D. project I could visit several international conferences to present my results and gather information. In addition, the HGU offers vulnerable seminars, esp. biometry and statistics turned out to be highly useful. This, together with the open discussions with my supervisors and colleagues enabled me to achieve my goal and to finish my thesis successfully.

I am glad, that my thesis could be published within the “Geisenheimer Berichte”. So let me put my work into a nutshell: