Wines with a chilean passport

The national wine-producing sector has been one of the greatest growing areas of Chilean exports in the last decade, becoming the star of Chilean exports.

Unfortunately, a scientifically validated methodology does not exist that confirms the quality for each type of wine produced in Chile, and even when the production and exportation of these Chilean wines has increased enormously, the some wine shipments have been rejected–especially by Europe- because it was determined that the certain characteristic pattern attributed to their origin has not been
fulfilled.

To prevent that this type of situation affects sales, and to assure, maintain, and expand in already conquered markets, researchers of the faculties of Pharmacy, Natural and Oceanographic Sciences, and Physics and Mathematical Sciences, as well as the Biotechnology Laboratory of the La Platina Regional Center of Agricultural Research Institute (La Platina INIA) joined together, since 2000, to develop a databank of the chemical and genetic markers of Chilean red wines, which will permit their differentiation and classification according to their type. With this information, they hope to strengthen Chilean competitiveness in the external market and make the national wine-making industry sustainable overtime.

The research forms part of the Fondef Project Differentiation of Chilean red wines in the world market through the identification of molecular markers characteristic with respect to type and origin, an initiative in which La Platina INIA, the Miguel Torres Winery; Concha y Toro Winery; Requingua Agriculture Society and the Agriculture Wine Cooperative of Cauquenes participate with the Universidad
de Concepción.

Searching for chemical and genetic identity

Chemical analysis of wine using high-resolution liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, joined with chimiometric data treatment and plant verification of the wine type through the use of DNA genetic identification will make the differentiation of red wine according to type possible in a short time. The methodology began with the selection of reference clones from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Carmenère, Syrah and
Tempranillo wines, from which the DNA was extracted and analyzed using the microsatellite technique.

Once the wine type was verified, the grapes were harvested and their antocians were identified. In parallel, they were submitted to micro-winemaking to obtain their classical chemical parameters such as pH, set acidity and alcohol volatility and grade. High-resolution liquid chromatography (HRLC) in the reverse phase modality permitted the determination of the antocian, flavonol, and organic acid levels.

With these studies, which are in their final stage, a database of chemical markers will be obtained that will permit verify wine type.

At the same time, La Platina INIA, also working on wine-type identification, has also reached the differentiation stage at the variety and clone level. La Platina INIA is using vegetal molecular biology technique to study the wine type and clones of the plant, based in the identification of specific alleles established by methodologies based in the use of microsatellite markers (PCR)
and AFLP, among others.

Once the databanks are available, the chemical marker profiles of the Chilean red wines will be compared with their European counterparts to establish the authenticity parameters of the national wines destined for the external market. The results generated by the project have been presented in several meetings of the field, at the
national and international level, where links of scientific collaboration have been established with the Technical University of Braunschweig en Germany, generating an active exchange of specialists.