## 1 Introduction  
Viticulture is an economically important crop spanning an area of 7.5 mha with a total production exceeding \(78\times 10^{6}\) tons and a revenue of more than 30 billion Euros of wine [1].  
Therefore understating the dynamics of product quality are of great economic importance [1]. Due to their abundance and activity, _Vitis vinifera_ associated microbes are key in regulating growth, plant health, and grape and wine quality [2; 3; 4]. Even beneficial microbes in wine production, i.e., lactic acid bacteria, can cause undesirable changes in wine flavor under certain conditions, rendering the wine undrinkable. Similarly, several associated bacteria can cause some serious wine spoilage [5]. Despite the great progress in describing grapevine microbiomes and their implications on their growth, yield, and product quality, little is known about how different cultivars (as microbial hosts) can shape associated microbial assemblage.  
A grapevine's successful establishment depends mainly on the selection of the appropriate cultivar. The trunk bark, as a permanent part of the vine and microbial host, is of much importance not only as a potential source of microbial inoculums for leaves and grapes but also as an indicator for microbial diversity in vineyards [6; 7]. Despite the importance of trunk bark in microbial dynamics, the majority of studies have focused on soil, leaves, berries, and wine associated microbial communities [4; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18]. Current perceptions entail that trunk bark could be an additional source of grape berry pathogenic fungi, i.e., _Uncinulancator_[19; 20; 21], _Botrytis cinerea_, _Fusarium laterium_, _Penicillium_ spp., _Phomopsis viticola_[13; 22]. Important pathogenic bacteria, _Xylella fastidiosa_, _Agrobacteriumium tumefaciens_, and _Xylophilus ampelius_, belonging to Proteobacteria, were also detected in trunk bark, causing pierce's, crown gall, and blight disease, respectively [6]. Very few studies have uncovered the presence of bacteria in grapevine buds, such as _Xylophilus ampelius_ spp. that have the ability to overwinter in the axillary buds [23]. However, although _Pseudomonas syringae_ (Proteobacteria), which causes leaf spots, necrotic lesions, loss of inflorescences, etc., was found latent in the grapevine suckers/shoots [24], others proved its ability to overwinter not only in shoots but also in buds and other parts of many fruit crops [25].  
Cultivar selection is an essential decision affecting product yield and quality; therefore, deciphering the abundance and diversity of vine-associated microbes requires systematic investigation. Previous research explored the abundance of specific pathogenic strains due to their economic importance in grape production and winemaking [13]. Fewer attempts have been made to describe the microbial diversity of _V. vinifera_, and those revealed the dominance of Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Chloroflexi microbial groups in Merlot, Dolcetto, and Sangiovese [6; 7]. Some studies suggest that grape varieties themselves condition the microbial population of grapes, and therefore the microbial structure during fermentation [4; 26]. Herein, we aim to decipher _Vitis vinifera_ microbial community composition and diversity to assess the role of cultivar-genotype in shaping the microbial community. Thus, bark tissue and buds were collected to explore the cultivar's bacterial community and its relationships with a wide selection of important national and international cultivars exploiting 16S rRNA gene sequencing on _Vitis_ barks and buds samples. The aim of the study was to assess the microbial community of bark tissue and buds in a grapevine collection consisting of thirty-seven international and domestic cultivars.