Machine learning tool fed red wines’ chemical profiles can deduce where they’re from

A new machine learning tool can analyse wines’ chemical profiles and use this to accurately predict where they were produced. The system could aid the wine industry’s efforts to authenticate the origins of its products.

Each wine has a complex chemical profile, which is shaped by things like the soil and climate of the area where the grapes were grown – its terroir – as well as the individual practices of the wine producer. While individual molecules can have a big impact on a wine’s flavour and can provide key insights as to where the wine was produced, the vast array of compounds within any wine makes analysing it a difficult task.