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High-Tech Wine Analysis: Is There DNA in Your Wine?
Posted by perle0 on 2005-03-22 01:17:16
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[News] |
| When wine is made from high-class grapes like Cabernet or Pinot Noir or Riesling, you pay for it. But how do you know if the wine in the bottle is really made from the grapes listed on the label? |
If you're a consumer, you pretty much just have to trust the label, and a respected vineyard will tell the truth. But that doesn't help when you're hunting a bargain or hoping to find a previously-undiscovered gem among the lesser-known wineries.
So in step your protectors, the government regulators of various countries who set--and enforce--laws about wine labelling, and who would like to find a scientific way to ensure that consumers are getting the wines they are paying for, not a Helfensteiner in Pinot clothing.
One method currently being used examines variations in isotopes of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in wines. These vary by region, but unfortunately, they can also be affected by weather conditions.
For single-varietal wines, chromatograpy can be used to identify the varietal's true identity. But this method doesn't work very well on blends.
For red wines, Germany has been examining ratios of different anthocyanins, molecules that make wine red. However, new research suggests that these ratios can be significantly altered by processing, perhaps causing some wines to be labelled unfairly as cheats.
On the horizon, a grape geneticist in France is trying to isolate DNA in wine and identify genetic markers to pin down the 2500 varieties of grape used in winemaking worldwide. DNA studies have already provided a good deal of information about the origins of various types of grapes, proving, for instance, that Zinfandel--California's "native" grape varietal--is actually the same grape as the Italian Primitivo, presumably brought to California early on by Italian immigrants. So it makes sense that, if DNA can be detected in wine, and hasn't been too much altered by the processing that turns grapes into wine, it can be used to make sure that your Chardonnay is real, not some cheaper and less tasty white varietal. |
You can read more of the details here. |
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