NMR metabolite fingerprinting in grape derived products: An overview

This review surveys NMR based metabolomic studies on grape derived products, such as berry, must, wine, vinegar, and grape marc distillates.. The complex matrix of these food items includes compounds: of high nutritional value; that bear the role of a biomarker; that shape their organoleptic characteristics and therefore contribute to the product's quality characteristics. HR-NMR has been established as a robust and reproducible screening platform able to capture a snapshot of the primary and secondary metabolites that comprise grape derived products and further, relate them to geographic, varietal, organoleptic, environmental, production process and fermentation factors by applying advanced chemometrics. On these grounds this review article demonstrates all the up-to-date information and aspires to assist future wineomics studies. The main objective was to survey the necessary information referring to sample pre-treatment depending on the grape substrate, NMR experimental schemes, statistical approaches and the discriminant power of identified metabolites. The genotype, the provenance, the vintage year and the vinification process are factors that alter the metabolic profile of Vitis derived products and are extensively discussed. Identified biomarkers related to each of the above factors are reported. Lastly current trends in NMR metabolic profiling of vine extracts and vinified products are surveyed as a tool for the monitoring of pathogen response-related compounds and genetic engineering issues. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.