The combined impact of vineyard origin and processing winery on the elemental profile of red wines

The combined effects of vineyard origin and winery processing have been studied in 65 red wines samples. Grapes originating from five different vineyards within 40 miles of each other were processed in at least two different wineries. Sixty-three different elements were determined with inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and wines were classified according to vineyard origin, processing winery, and the combination of both factors. Vineyard origin as well as winery processing have an impact on the elemental composition of wine, but each winery and each vineyard change the composition to a different degree. For some vineyards, wines showed a characteristic elemental pattern, independent of the processing winery, but the same was found for some wineries, with similar elemental pattern for all grapes processed in these wineries, independent of the vineyard origin. Studying the combined effects of grapegrowing and winemaking provides insight into the determination of geographical origin of red wines.