(WineSpectator) - When Duccio Cavalieri’s grandfather went to work in the fields of Tuscany, caring for Sangiovese vines, the hornets buzzing about the vineyard were a regular presence. These days, Cavalieri works in the same fields, collecting scientific data. And his findings suggest those hornets are a winemaker's best friend. Thanks to that data, Cavalieri, director of computational biology at the Edmund Mach Foundation at the Institute of San Michele all'Adige, and a team of colleagues at the University of Florence, have produced a portrait of the ecology of the wild yeast species used in winemaking and beer brewing.