LC-MS Untargeted Protocol for the Analysis of Wine

This chapter describes a protocol for the analysis of the metabolomic fingerprint of wine by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The straightforward, optimized sample preparation procedure is limited to a single-step dilution with water or acetonitrile. The separation of wine analytes is carried out by two columns with orthogonal selectivity, including both reversed-phase (C18) and hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) chromatography, while the detection is assured by a high-resolution quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer operating in negative and positive electrospray ionization mode, in order to obtain four different chromatograms for each sample. This validated protocol, or parts of it, could be applied in several oenological topic experimental designs, including wine quality and wine authenticity.