Comprehensive lipidome profiling of Sauvignon blanc grape juice

• We determined the lipid profile of 217 grape juices harvested over 3 vintages.
• We found that the total lipid content of grape juice could be as high as 2.8 g/L.
• The majority of lipids were present in the form of complex molecules.
• Free fatty acids represented a relatively small fraction of total lipids (<15%).
• The lipidome should be considered an important component of grape juice.

This study presents a comprehensive lipidome analysis of Sauvignon blanc grape juice by combining GC–MS based fatty acid profiling with shotgun lipidomics strategy. We observed that despite grape juice being a water based matrix it contains a diverse range of lipid species, including common saturated and unsaturated free and intact fatty acids as well as odd-numbered and hydroxy fatty acids. Based on GC–MS quantitative data, we found that the total lipid content of grape juice could be as high as 2.80 g/L. The majority of lipids were present in the form of complex lipids with relatively small amount of free fatty acids (<15%). Therefore we concluded that the lipidome should be considered an important component of grape juice with the potential to impact on fermentation processes as well as on the sensorial properties of fermented products. This work serves as a hypothesis generating tool, the results of which justify follow-up studies to explore the influence of the grape juice lipidome and lipid metabolism in yeast on the aroma profile of wine.