Abstract
The δ18O and δ13C (analyzed by isotope ratio mass spectrometry, IRMS) and concentration of 22 selected elements (analyzed by inductively coupled plasma—optical emission spectrometry, ICP-OES) in 190 Croatian microvinified and commercial wine samples from continental and coastal winegrowing areas and from three viticultural zones (B, CI, and CII) were measured to investigate whether multivariate statistical methods could provide the fingerprint for geographical origin determination. The highest power for discrimination of wines produced in Croatian winegrowing areas was achieved by general discriminant analysis (GDA) showing correct classification of 97.9% of all investigated samples, 100.0% of microvinified samples and 84.8% of commercial samples in the cross-validation matrix. The most significant markers for discrimination of coastal and continental areas found by GDA were δ18O and Co, followed by K, Rb, Sn, Li, and δ13C in descending order. GDA showed higher levels of correctly classified samples from three viticultural zones in Croatia if only microvinified samples were employed in the analysis (94.9%) than for all samples together (86.3%) or for commercial samples (66.1%) in the cross-validation matrix. The discrimination of viticultural zones B, CI, and CII in Croatia was achieved by δ18O, Co, Rb, Li, K, and Sn. The results obtained showed that the relationships between the isotopic ratios and concentrations of different considered elements combined with appropriate statistical model represent a powerful tool in discrimination of wines produced in different Croatian winegrowing areas.
Highlights
The adulteration of food and beverages is a growing global problem
The effect of the type of production was significant for the harvest (F = 4.843; p < 0.001) and viticulture zones (F = 2.133; p < 0.001), and the mutual interaction of these three effects was significant (F = 1.709; p < 0.005) indicating that these attributes were useful in characterizing the differences among the measured values in wines
The isotopic and multielement composition of the analyzed wines and statistical methods were used as chemical descriptors in order to establish criteria for wine classification and differentiation according to geographical origin
Summary
Consumer awareness of the food safety importance has been steadily increasing in recent years as well as activities that include adulteration of food products for economic gain [1, 2] Following these trends, analytical methods for determination of the authenticity of food products, including wine, are constantly being developed and upgraded [3, 4]. The use of analytical methods to verify the declared composition and origin is of high-interest both for wine producers and consumers [13, 14] This is increasingly recognized in Croatia [15,16,17,18,19], where viticulture and winemaking represent a significant economic activity, especially through the growing tourism industry [20]
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