Determination of Elemental Content in Vineyard Soil, Leaves, and Grapes of Sangiovese Grapes from the Chianti Region Using ICP-MS for Geographical Identification

Raffaello Nardin; Gabriella Tamasi; Michele Baglioni; Flavia Bisozzi; Marco Consumi; Jessica Costa; Giacomo Fattori; Cristiana Tozzi; Angelo Riccaboni; Claudio Rossi

doi:10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00231

Determination of Elemental Content in Vineyard Soil, Leaves, and Grapes of Sangiovese Grapes from the Chianti Region Using ICP-MS for Geographical Identification

ACS Food Sci Technol. 2024 Oct 28;4(11):2585-2599. doi: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00231. eCollection 2024 Nov 15.

Authors

Raffaello Nardin^{1

2}, Gabriella Tamasi^{1

2}, Michele Baglioni^{1

2}, Flavia Bisozzi^{1

2}, Marco Consumi^{1

2}, Jessica Costa^{1

2}, Giacomo Fattori^{1

2}, Cristiana Tozzi³, Angelo Riccaboni^{3

4}, Claudio Rossi^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy.
² Centre for Colloid and Surface Science (CSGI), University of Florence, Via della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy.
³ Santa Chiara Lab, University of Siena, Via Valdimontone 1, 53100 Siena, Italy.
⁴ Department of Business and Law, University of Siena, Piazza San Francesco 8, 53100 Siena, Italy.

PMID: 39568444
PMCID: PMC11575683 (available on 2025-10-28)
DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00231

Abstract

To fight counterfeits and to protect the consumer, the interest in certifying the origin of agricultural goods has been steadily growing in the last years. While numerous works focus on the finished product, an aspect often overlooked is the origin of the raw materials and the direct correlation between chemicals in the soil and the plants. With inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis, trace and ultratrace elements in Sangiovese grapes (the main component of Chianti wine) were measured and their levels were used to investigate the geographical origin of the samples. This was achieved despite the extreme closeness of some of the vineyard partners of this study (10-20 km range) by computing a multivariate model using selected elements as levels. The model was then validated on samples coming from different zones of the Chianti area, with good results for discriminating even extremely close regions.