Effect of variety of grapes on trace element and ochratoxin A contents of Hungarian red wines

The quality of wines depends on the soil, the climatic circumstances, the technology, and the variety of grapes. Since the Egri Bikaver (Bull's blood of Eger) is a cuvee wine, for its production, different 1-year-old red wines (Blauburger, Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc, Kekfrankos, Merlot) are mixed in well-selected ratios. Our investigations were focused on red wines of 2007 vintage produced by the same technology from five different varieties of grapes cultivated in the same agricultural area and on the Bikaver produced in 2006 by the mixing of five different 1-year-old wines as mentioned above. The concentration of trace elements and ochratoxin A were determined by inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography techniques, respectively. It was established that the variety of grapes produced at the same territory has practically no influence on the trace element concentration of the investigated red wines. In addition, the concentration of ochratoxin A has remained in all cases <0.1 µg L-1, considerably lower than the European regulatory limit of 2 µg L-1.