A fast method for the determination of the ethanol content in wine using widely available routine nuclear magnetic resonance techniques

Abstract

The exact determination of alcohol content is one of the main routine wine analyses performed. Nowadays, various analytical methods exist, ranging from historically derived distillation techniques to modern methods such as infrared spectroscopy. Here, we report on a protocol based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. NMR spectroscopy has been applied for a long time to derive several detailed information about wine components via different NMR methods. Special care was taken in this case to the use of routine NMR techniques only, widely available at analytical departments and without specialized parameters. Besides alcohol content, information about other components of wine or toxic impurities may be obtained from these measurements.

Keywords:

• ethanol content
• NMR
• routine analysis

Acknowledgement

The help of Annette Arnold and the analytical laboratories of ‘Jacques’ Wein-Depot’ for providing us with detailed information about the wine samples is gratefully acknowledged.