Wine fingerprinting using a bio-geochemical approach

Abstract

Abstract.The wine sector is a billion euro business and therefore subjected to multiple attempts of fraudulent practices. This requires the development of rapid and reliable methods to detect such situations. Several methodologies have been developed based on the chemical profiles of the wines, but they are limited due to the environmental conditions that cannot be controlled. The use of DNA-based detection systems are an emergent research field that have been extended to a wide variety of food products and are still the most reliable methods for varietal identification. However these methods are not suitable for geographical determination. Soil related fingerprints have a primary role considering that there is a relationship between the elemental composition of wine and the composition of the provenance soil. WineBioCode is a project aiming to define the best strategy for wine authenticity based on a multidisciplinary approach. Two DNA-based strategies have been developed based on Real-time PCR and a label free optical biosensor platform. Both platforms enabled successful identification of specific DNA-targets when applied to Vitis vinifera L., and can be applied throughout the grape-wine chain. The methods are complementary and can be used in different situations, according to the requirements. The geographical evaluation has been assessed by the strontium 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotope ratio determination involving soil evaluation in the vineyards followed by its assay in the wine samples. The results are being integrated in order to establish the best procedure to be undertaken for wine fingerprinting, including varietal composition and geographical origin, therefore fulfilling the requirements of the geographical denominations in wine certification.

Evaluating Nanofiltration Effect on Wine 87Sr/86Sr Isotopic Ratio and the Robustness of this Geographical Fingerprint

“…Palmela and Óbidos DO, characterised by sandy and clay soils (more recent and with a lower Rb/Sr) respectively, showed lower 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios. The observed values are in accordance with reported ratios for a wine from a Portuguese granitic area (0.71203) (Barbaste et al, 2002), and lower than values reported for wines from Douro (0.7130 to 0.7175) (Fernandes et al, 2015), where soils are mainly schistous.…”

“…These differences could possibly be explained by the inter-year variability, making evident the drawbacks of multi-elemental-based strategies for the determination of geographic origin. Among Portuguese DO, higher concentrations were recently found in wines from the Douro region (Fernandes et al, 2015).…”

87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratios in vineyard soils and varietal wines from Douro Valley

“…Most of the vineyards are installed in soils developed on schists. There is little information on strontium isotopic ratio of soils and wines from Douro [3,5,20]. On the basis of these considerations, a study was developed to examine the variation of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr in wines from Douro region taking into account the effect of vineyard location and grapevine variety.…”

From the Field to the Bottle—An Integrated Strategy for Wine Authenticity

“…Therefore, instead of aiming to define a unique technology, the integration of two-dimensional strategies, one for geographical origin determination and another for varietal identification and quantification, can be a more convenient and reliable way of tackling this issue. This type of approach has been already suggested by Fernandes et al [31] as a bio-geochemical strategy, considering the grapevine composition through a biological method, and the definition of provenance based on geochemical determination.…”

“…Some of the most widely applied methods to assess the botanical and geographical origin of wine are spectroscopic and/or spectrometric, such as ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC), Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis), near-infrared (NIR), mid-infrared (MIR), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), among others. All these are high-throughput approaches requiring the use of somewhat complex statistical analyses and, most of the time, a big data set from the defined region considering several production years and varieties to develop a reliable database [31].…”