Abstract
Modern instrumental analytical techniques pervade chemical analyses in the authentication, quality control and research in wines. A potential alternative approach that does not involve the use of expensive analytical equipment, though dependent on availability of suitable chemical receptors, is array sensing. A 3 × 3 array of sensing ensembles that function via indicator displacement assays, and are composed of previously explored boronic acid receptors and indicators, was used for the discrimination of three organic acids commonly found in wine. This array, after finding it suitable for discriminating malate, tartrate and citrate, was used for the pattern-based discrimination of six wine varietals. Linear discriminant analysis of spectroscopic data obtained from the addition of the organic acids and wines to the array showed satisfactory discrimination of all analytes. Such a sensor array is envisioned to ultimately be able to classify wine varietals.
Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the support of the Freshman Research Initiative at the College of Natural Sciences at UT Austin, the NSF (Grant CHE-0716049), and the Welch Foundation (F-1151).
Notes
1. These authors contributed equally to this work.
2. These wines were bought from the local grocery, H-E-B. Beaujolais – Louis Jadot, France 2008; Shiraz – Sterling Vintner's Collection, California 2005; Merlot – Blackstone, California 2007; Pinot Noir – Cono Sur, Chile, Valle Central 2008; Cabernet Sauvignon – Lindemans, Australia 2008; Zinfandel – Ravenswood Vintner's Blend, California 2006.
3. Jackknife analysis is a technique that examines the reliability of the statistical model by re-sampling the data.