Relationship among geochemical elements in soil and grapes as terroir fingerprintings in Vitis vinifera L. cv. “Glera”

Prosecco, one of the most popular sparkling wines in the world, is produced in Italy. For this reason, it is important to develop a scientific method for determining geographic origin in order to prevent fraudulent labelling. To establish the relationship between geochemistry of vineyard soil and chemical composition of grape, a geochemical characterization of “Glera”, a Vitis vinifera cultivar from Italian Region, Veneto was undertaken. We evaluated the relationship between major and trace elements in soil and their concentrations in “Glera” grape berries in vineyards belonging to five localities in the Veneto alluvial plain, all included in the Controlled Designation of Origin (DOC) area of Prosecco. A statistically significant correspondence between the soil and grape was observed for Sr. Multivariate analysis (LDA) allowed discrimination of samples of soil and grape berries from each single winery according to the geographic origin. The elements that could establish a reliable correspondence between the geolithological features of the vineyard soil and the chemical composition of grape berries are: Sr, Ba, Ca, Mg, Al, K, Zn, B, Ni, Co.