Metabologeography

[Arjun Mendiratta]

"Our systems oenology approach provides an unprecedented example of metabologeography translated into chemical representations of the way such noble nectar can shape on the papillas of the wine taster some of the outlines of the scene of its birth."

Abstract: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/23/9174

Wired summary: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/oenology/

(Two unrelated addenda:

1. I do not have access to the full paper

2. I would never advocate criminal copyright infringement on a public forum.

)

 

[slaton]

Wine chemical compositions, which result from a complex interplay between environmental factors, genetic factors, and viticultural practices, have mostly been studied using targeted analyses of selected families of metabolites. Detailed studies have particularly concerned volatile and polyphenolic compounds because of their acknowledged roles in the organoleptic and therapeutic properties. However, we show that an unprecedented chemical diversity of wine composition can be unraveled through a nontargeted approach by ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry, which provides an instantaneous image of complex interacting processes, not easily or possibly resolvable into their unambiguous individual contributions. In particular, the statistical analysis of a series of barrel-aged wines revealed that 10-year-old wines still express a metabologeographic signature of the forest location where oaks of the barrel in which they were aged have grown.

 

[drssouth]

Interesting from a scientific standpoint BUT...does it taste any different??? I have found that chemical analyses of wine (and other beverages) rarely can translate to anything most of us could even start to appreciate

It would be a wonderful tool to investigate fake wines if indeed it can pinpoint where the trees were grown. We wouldn't have that info from "the billionaires vinegar" but we would know about the '82 Petrus.