posted on 2021-08-25, 00:04authored byJasmina Obhod̵aš, Vladivoj Valković, Andrija Vinković, Davorin Sudac, Ivana Čanad̵ija, Tihana Pensa, Željka Fiket, Anna Turyanskaya, Thomas Bretschneider, Christoph Wilhelmer, Gerelmaa Gunchin, Peter Kregsamer, Peter Wobrauschek, Christina Streli
The elemental composition
has been extensively used to characterize
wine and to find correlations with environmental and winemaking factors.
Although X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques offer many advantages,
they have been rarely used for wine analysis. Here, we show the comparison
of wine elemental composition results obtained by total reflection
X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence
(EDXRF) for elements K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Br, Rb, and Sr. The results
obtained by TXRF and EDXRF have been additionally verified by inductively
coupled plasma–mass spectrometry. The important analytical
features of XRF techniques in wine science have been described, the
preservation of volatile elements (e.g., Br) being one of their main
advantages. In addition, we have shown that XRF techniques offer an
optimal analytical approach for building large data sets containing
highly reliable and reproducible results of elemental abundances in
wines, corresponding soils, and grape juice. Such data sets are especially
important for the geographic authentication of wine. This has been
shown for 37 Austrian and Croatian wines collected together with respective
soils from selected wine regions. The element abundances in soil reflect
in a large portion in grape juice and finished wine suggesting that
the contribution of the soil, that is, the plant uptake capacity expressed
as ci(wine)/ci(soil) concentration factors, can be a highly discriminating factor
for wine fingerprinting. This indeed has been proved in the present
study in comparison to discrimination based only on wine element abundances.
We have identified Fe, Zn, Br, Rb, and Sr as the best discriminator
elements for the geographical authentication of wine. The study opens
a new perspective in extending the application of XRF techniques as
a cost-effective analytical tool for creating large databases of soil,
grape juice, and wine element abundances for the evaluation of soil
characteristics and other environmental parameters on wine composition.