GROWTH – DEDICATED CALL – 1/00
TOPIC III.17
Establishing of a data bank for analytical parameters for wines from
Third Countries
1. CONFORMITY WITH THE WORK PROGRAMME
This topic falls under the Competitive and Sustainable Growth Programme, generic
activity Measurement and Testing. Specifically, it is related to Objective GROW-20006.2.2 Measurement and Testing anti-fraud methodologies for which expressions of
interest have been called.
2. KEYWORDS
Third country wines, EU-regulations, anti-fraud-regulations, authenticity, stable isotope
analyses, data bank, multivariate statistics, training.
3. SUMMARY OF OBJECTIVES AND JUSTIFICATION
The official wine control bodies from the European Union are more and more
confronted with fraudulently produced and/or mislabelled wines from Third Countries.
Without collaboration with official bodies and research institutes from Third Countries,
especially those from Eastern Europe, authentic wines and grapes can not be obtained
and measures to prevent fraud and dishonest trade in accordance with the measures
taken by EU-regulations concerning the use of an isotope wine data bank are impossible
to be used
4. BACKGROUND
The fact that natural isotopic ratios of the "so called" biomass (1H/2H; 13C/12C; 18O/16O;
14 15
N/ N etc.) are stable and determined by the geographical origin and the biosynthesis
has encouraged the European Union to create a data bank on isotope ratios in wines to
detect illegal sugar additions and water addition to wines by EC regulation EEC
2347/91 and 2348/91 in combination with EEC 2676/90.
Meanwhile, besides the 2H/1H ratio also the 18O/16O ratios are measured and reported to
the data bank; the analytical data are strictly obtained from authentic samples. Latest
research results predominantely obtained from the former research-project founded by
the European Commission (Food Analysis Using Isotopic Techniques, Thematic
Network n° SMT 4-CT 95-7500) have highlighted the important role of the oxygen
stable isotope ratios with regard to the geographical origin, especially if it is compared
to 13C/12C ratios of certain wine components and related to climatic data, such as rainfall
and temperature.
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Therefore, it is foreseen that also the carbon isotope ratios will be implemented to the
European wine data bank as soon as the analytical method is internationally validated.
The isotope data bank has proven to be a strong measure against fraudulent sugar
additions to musts and wines and is more and more used to detect other frauds, such as
water additions, redilution and fermentation of concentrated musts and mislabelling
with regard to the geographical origin and grape variety.
For wines being imported to the European Union the situation is completely different.
Official wine control bodies are more and more confronted with suspicious wines from
third countries, which can not be taken from the market, because authentic material is
not available for comparability checks.
All attempts to contact official control bodies in producing countries from Central and
Eastern Europe to receive authentic grapes and wines, have failed so far.
Therefore, activities in some EU countries have been initiated to create a data base for
wines from retail markets which appear unsuspicious and common in trade. Basic
statistics are used for the time being to enable interpretation.
The tasks of this project aim at the creation of data bases from authentic samples from
Third Countries and from samples common in trade. Both data bases will be evaluated
by multivariate statistical methods to answer the following questions:
1. Is it possible by statistical models to simulate authentic data bases from trade
samples?
2. Which analytical parameters other than stable isotope ratios are important to
distinguish between different geographical origins?
3. In how far can climatic data contribute to an interpretation enhancement?
4. What kind of statistics must be used for an accepted and harmonized data
interpretation in the case of unknown samples?
The problems concerned with wine imports from third countries into the European
Union have already been subject of discussions within the wine expert groups in the
Directorate General for Agriculture, the EU 2H-NMR Data Bank Subcommittee of the
JRC and the International Wine Office (Office International de la Vigne et du Vin,
OIV).
5. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS
The countries of the European Union are the main wine producers in the world. To the
same time the EU is the main wine importing part in the world. Alone Germany for
instance has imported 1.828.376 hl from Third Countries in 1997 equivalent to a value
of 337.237.000 DM. In 1998 this latter value was increased by 15.5 % (source: Europ.
Comm. C 392/8 and Deutscher Weinbau Verband).
Wines marketed in the EU must comply with EU legislation, especially EEC 822/87,
laying down the enological practices allowed.
With regard to fair competition in the EU market it is necessary to detect and reject
fraudulent products.
The proposed project will help to support effective European wine control measures and
in parallel helps countries from Central and Eastern Europe and from overseas to move
DC 1/00/Topic III.17/ Pg 3
forward in accepting and adopting EU-legislation. Moreover, the sampling procedures
for authentic grapes and wines as well as the analytical instrumentation and knowledge,
especially as it concerns isotopic measurements (NMR, IRMS), can be set up and
enhanced thereby. The training of scientists through exchange is therefore part of the
project.
The statistics developed within this project on the other hand will have an impact on a
better handling and interpretation of the existing EU-wine data bank, since the
procedure presently applied requires the collection of authentic grapes under official
control, which is extremely costly with regard to organisation, sampling and vinification
procedures and personnel.
6. SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL OBJECTIVES
The principle research objectives are:
 The building up of sampling and documentation systems in accordance with EEC
regulations in Third Countries
 The creation of a data base from wines common in trade from Third Countries
 The measurement of isotopic and other analytical parameters of these wines
 Multivariate statistical evaluation of all data and correlation between data from
authentic wines and those common in trade
 Application of obtained knowledge to actual problems.
 Training of scientists from Third countries to transfer analytical knowledge and
adopt and EU wine control measures.
 Help in setting up accredited laboratory units in Central and East European countries
A close cooperation with the concerned Commission services (DG AGRI, RELEX,
OLAF, JRC), official competent laboratories for wine analysis, especially those being
capable of stable isotope analysis, university and wine industry and OIV is
recommended. Technology transfer is an important part of this project to implement EU
control measures in Third Countries.
Since the data bank as an outcome of the project and its scientific results will be an
important basis for EU-wine-control measures, the access will be restricted to official
control bodies. Since the procedures and objectives for building up the data base should
be in accordance with EEC Reg. No. 1932/97 (2348/91) partners in Third Countries
should be official national authorities and laboratories, for instance as listed in Art. 4 (3)
of EEC Reg. No. 3590/85 and published in the Official Journal of the European
Communities 1999/C/46/06. Partners from wine industry are foreseen to contribute to
the influence of oenology on natural wine constituents and isotopic ratios. It is the aim
and the outcome of this project to maintain the sampling and measuring procedures to
extend the existing European data base for the future. Therefore, the responsibility for
the maintenance and updating of the databank after the end of the project should be
clearly addressed in the proposal.
DC 1/00/Topic III.17/ Pg 4
7. TIME SCALE
Although no rigid timescale requirements apply to this project, a period of 3 years is
considered as being realistic to conduct such a project.