AN APPRAISAL OF LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY-MASS SPECTROMETRY FOR THE ANALYSIS AND TRACKING OF WINE AND GRAPE COMPONENTS

Objectives and Results: Our initial assessment was that this technique was not well developed enough at this point to be genuinely useful for wine analysis. It appears to lack the sensitivity to provide chemically useful information on the minor components in wines, and it is these components that are the interesting ones, since the major components are already well known. We are continuing to work with the UC Davis Facility for Advanced Instrumentation which is installing a new LC/MS system, to evaluate its applicability to wine analysis. Our evaluation focussed on the analysis of phenolic compounds.