Authentication approach of the chemodiversity of grape and wine by FTICR-MS

The metabolic composition of grapes and related wines results from a complex interplay between environmental, genetic and human factors which are not easily or possibly resolvable into their unambiguous individual contributions. Whether it is in the vineyard or in the cellar, several processes can indeed subtly modulate the characteristics of grape and wine, and these modulations often involve 'trace' amounts and interplay of metabolites within a complex matrix. As a consequence, considering wine as a complex biological system, the whole of which being more than the sum of its parts, is likely to provide deeper understanding of specificities associated with varieties and/or geographical origins and/or wine making practices. We show that non-targeted analyses of grape and wine products by ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry can reveal snapshots of their chemodiversities, and that these chemodiversities, characterized by thousands of metabolites, precisely hold fingerprints of specific environmental parameters such as the "terroir" of a wine or even of oaks used for barrel ageing.