NMR application on oenological products

The present work, which is part of the extensive research project AGER - AGroalimentare E Ricerca (“New analytical methodologies for geographical and varietal traceability of oenological products”) coordinated by the University of Modena, aims to use the HR-NMR techniques as molecular fingerprints in order to serve as indirect indicators of authenticity and quality control. In this context, 110 PDO Protected Designation of Origin Lambrusco wines of Modena (34 Lambrusco di Sorbara, 38 Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce and 38 Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro) and several grape musts at different stage of winemaking, provided by local producers joined to the research project AGER - AGroalimentare E Ricerca, were analyzed. The data obtained were coupled with mono and multi variate chemometric analyses to effectively interpret the complex results collected from mono and bi-dimensional spectra (HR-1H-NMR, 1H-1H COSY, 1H-13C HMBC) acquired. Before statistical analysis, all mono-dimensional spectra were calibrated using the TMSP signal, whereas the bi-dimensional spectra were calibrated using one of the signals present in all the spectra analyzed. In this context, NMR spectroscopy represents an important tool for the authentication and quality control of foodstuff. The wine area, in particular, is one of those in which the NMR has proved most successful in recent years (Brescia et al., 2002; Viggiani and Castiglione, 2008). High-resolution techniques were rather powerful tools for studying minor components of oenological products. Since the quality and characteristics of a product are not the simple sum of individual chemical characteristics, NMR analysis with chemometric data analysis certainly is a useful tool in this regard. To the best of our knowledge, only a few studies were focused on geographical and varietal traceability of PDO Lambrusco wines of Modena, using simple 1D and 2D high-resolution NMR coupled with chemometrics directly on samples with minimal pretreatment.