Researchers develop a faster test to verify where wine comes from

Researchers have developed a faster and more precise way to read the inorganic “fingerprint” of wine, a step that could strengthen efforts to verify where a bottle comes from and detect possible fraud in the market.

The work, published in Food Chemistry, describes an analytical strategy that combines multi-element isotopic dilution with external calibration and uses inductively coupled plasma triple quadrupole mass spectrometry, or ICP-QQQ-MS. In practical terms, the method measures 23 inorganic elements in wine with high precision and uses that profile to distinguish wines by geographic origin.

The study is based on a simple premise: where a wine is produced helps shape its elemental and isotopic composition. Soil, water and local growing conditions can leave measurable traces in the finished product. By capturing those traces more accurately, laboratories can build a stronger chemical profile of a wine and compare it with known regional patterns.

According to the paper, the new approach improves both speed and analytical accuracy in wine elemental testing. That matters because origin checks often depend on methods that must be reliable enough for routine use, especially when producers, regulators or importers need to confirm provenance across many samples.

The researchers said the method’s geographic discrimination was high, meaning it was effective at separating wines from different production areas based on their inorganic composition. That kind of separation is central to traceability systems, which aim to connect a product on the shelf with the place where it was made.

The technique relies on ICP-QQQ-MS, an advanced form of mass spectrometry already used in food and environmental analysis. In this case, the instrument was paired with multi-element isotopic dilution, a strategy that can improve measurement precision by correcting for sources of analytical error during testing. External calibration was also used as part of the workflow to support rapid quantification.

Together, those steps produced a detailed elemental profile that the authors say can support wine management and traceability. In the wine trade, that could have practical value for official controls, internal audits and authenticity checks, particularly in cases where geographic claims affect price, reputation or legal protection.

The findings also point to a broader issue for the beverage sector. A more precise inorganic fingerprint could give wineries and control laboratories another tool to examine origin claims with greater confidence. If adopted beyond research settings, such methods could help reduce disputes over provenance and strengthen anti-fraud systems tied to appellations and other place-based labels.

Food Chemistry described the work as part of ongoing efforts in food analysis to improve origin verification through advanced chemical profiling. For wine producers, that means laboratory science is moving closer to offering faster tests that do not only assess composition, but also help answer a commercial question with growing importance: whether a wine is truly from the place named on its label.