Traceability of the Brunello di Montalcino Wines

This meeting is organised in light of the active collaboration of both Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino and Fondazione Edmund Mach with the International Trade Division of the TTB, aimed to strengthen cooperation in the exchange of information on the science and technologies related to grape and wine analyses, research activities in those fields, and novel developments of analytical methodologies for the characterization of wine and grape varietals (http://www.ttb.gov/itd/signs_mou.shtml). Brunello di Montalcino, produced in Montalcino (Siena, Tuscany), is one of the most renowned wines in the world and can be considered the flagship of Italian oenology. Today, 250 wineries produce almost 7 million bottles a year from 2100 hectares, with a turnover of around 140 million euro. According to current Italian regulations, DOCG (Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin) Brunello di Montalcino wines must be produced exclusively using Sangiovese grapes from the Montalcino production area and can only be put on the market in the fifth year after harvest, following a minimum of two years ageing in oak barrels. In light of the considerable economical and scientific importance of the topic, Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino promoted in 2008 a research project in collaboration with the Research and Innovation Centre of Fondazione Emdund Mach (San Michele ll’Adige, Trento, Italy) aimed to find the most appropriate analytical methods in order to verify the geographical and varietal origin of the Brunello wines. For the geographical origin, accurate surveys were completed in order to characterise the wines produced in the Montalcino area, based on the quantitative analysis of the natural abundance of stable isotopes and using the official EU methods. In principle, the pigment profile could be suggested as a valid aid for the certification of the varietal origin of the wine. Unfortunately, the conventional HPLC method used for legal quality control of wine (OIV method adopted with the Resolution ENO 22/2003) does not provide sound results with aged wines and from an analytical point it was clearly obsolete. The development of a novel method for the quantification of the pigments in aged wines was was succesfully completed in 2012 (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf302617e?mi=z48nb4&af=R&pageSize=20&searchText=aging). The pigment composition of Sangiovese wines produced from grapes harvested at twenty different vineyards in Montalcino over three consecutive years on a semi-industrial scale and of commercial Brunello di Montalcino wines of the years 2004-2007 was studied, using a targeted method capable of analysing 90 pigments in a 11 min UHPLC-MS/MS chromatographic run. The use of modern instrumentation and the development of a carefully defined analytical protocol, allowed quantification of pigments with concentrations up to two orders of magnitude lower as compared to those accessible using conventional HPLC-DAD techniques. It was discovered that the formation of the pigments in wine follows a pattern which is variety dependent, at least for Sangiovese. This information allowed a better understanding of the complete Sangiovese wine pigment profile and provides a basis for understanding how grape pigments are transformed during the winemaking and ageing, essential knowledge for tracing the Sangiovese variety in wine. Following the succesfull completion of this first research, Consorzio Brunello di Montalcino and Fondazione Mach started a new project aimed to validate the possibility to apply the isotopic pattern and the pigment profile as innovative methods for the quality control and traceability of Brunello di Montalcino wines.