Wine, Food and Gut Health Multiomics : Adv Nutr | May 2026

Introduction

Wine has historically been investigated for its cardioprotective effects, particularly in the context of the “French paradox,” but emerging evidence suggests that moderate wine consumption may exert broader physiological effects, especially on gut health and the microbiome. Wine contains a highly complex molecular matrix composed of polyphenols, organic acids, oligosaccharides, lipids, peptides and trace elements that interact dynamically with gut microbes and host metabolism. Advances in multiomics technologies are now enabling deeper characterization of these interactions and the biological “dark matter” of wine.

Problem Statement

Current understanding of wine-related health effects remains limited by reductionist approaches focused primarily on isolated compounds such as resveratrol or ethanol. The broader interactions between wine composition, co-consumed foods, gut microbiota and host physiology remain poorly defined. In particular, the molecular mechanisms underlying wine-food-gut interactions, interindividual metabolic variability and the role of microbial biotransformation require systematic investigation using integrated omics platforms.

Summary

This review proposes a comprehensive multiomics framework to investigate how wine components interact with food matrices and gut microbial ecosystems to influence local and systemic health. Moderate red wine consumption has been associated with increased gut microbial diversity and enrichment of potentially beneficial taxa including Bifidobacterium, Prevotella, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Roseburia, alongside reductions in lipopolysaccharide-producing bacteria. These microbiome shifts correlate with improvements in inflammatory and cardiometabolic markers, although causality remains unproven. Wine polyphenols undergo extensive microbial transformation in the colon, generating xenometabolites with bioactive potential that may contribute to intestinal barrier protection, antioxidant activity and metabolic regulation.

The review highlights how metabolomics, glycomics, lipidomics, proteomics and ionomics are expanding understanding of wine’s molecular complexity. Metabolomic studies have identified hundreds of wine-associated metabolites linked to amino acid, lipid, carbohydrate and antioxidant pathways. Glycomic analyses reveal substantial diversity in wine oligosaccharides, which may possess prebiotic properties capable of modulating microbial communities and short-chain fatty acid production. Lipidomic and peptidomic approaches further suggest that wine-derived lipids and peptides could exert anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive and antimicrobial effects, although their physiological relevance remains insufficiently explored.

Importantly, the authors emphasize that wine should not be studied in isolation from dietary context. Interactions between wine and Mediterranean dietary patterns, fats, proteins and carbohydrates substantially alter polyphenol bioavailability, microbial fermentation and metabolite generation. The review also underscores marked interindividual variability driven by genetics, microbiota composition and metabolic phenotypes, suggesting that personalized responses to wine consumption are likely substantial. Overall, the article advocates for integrated systems-level approaches that combine advanced multiomics, gut microbial profiling and human physiological phenotyping to better define how moderate wine consumption influences gut and systemic health.