Wine authentication: Current progress and state of the art

Wine, renowned as one of the oldest and globally consumed alcoholic beverages, possesses a complex composition and aroma shaped by diverse geographical and regulatory influences. To combat fraud in this lucrative industry, the integration of analytical techniques with chemometric tools has become imperative for ensuring authenticity and quality. This review delves into analytical techniques for wine authentication and quality assessment, including chromatography, spectroscopy, and digital imaging, bolstered by chemometrics. It highlights the importance of chemometrics in extracting key statistical insights and understanding the complex attributes of wine. The diverse attributes of wine, ranging from grapevine variety to winemaking techniques, offer opportunities for characterization, classification, and authentication through chemical and physical analyses. Chromatography is the primary analytical method, capable of identifying trace-level organic compounds and detecting adulteration. In addition to chromatographic methods, spectroscopic methods have also found widespread commercial application, often allowing simpler handling compared to chromatography but yielding less extensive data. On the other hand, digital image methods, which have recently begun to be used, represent great potential in wine analysis as they require minimal or no sample preparation. Future readers stand to benefit from a comprehensive understanding of modern wine authentication methods, including chromatography, spectroscopy, digital imaging, and their integration with chemometric tools for innovative analysis approaches. •Authenticating wine is complex due to varied factors in grape cultivation and winemaking.•Advanced chromatographic methods revolutionize wine analysis.•Spectroscopic and digital image techniques integrated enable rapid and non-destructive analysis.•Predominant local focus underscores a need for more globally applicable authentication methods.