Impact of clonal selection on Cabernet Franc Grape and wine elemental profiles

Abstract Three Cabernet Franc (CF) clones (Nos. 02, 010 and 012; not yet commercial) obtained in the last phase of clonal selection were examined within this study. Indeed, the content of 27 chemical elements in the vineyard soil along with CF grape and wine samples were determined by inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectroscopy. The relative dependence of the selected elements in all samples were estimated using correlation matrices. While elemental profiles of both CF grape and wine samples were highly variable among the analysed clones, bioaccumulation factors (grape/soil) of Mg, Na and Sr were found to be specific for each single clone. Applying principal component analysis, the grape clones were differentiated among each other according to the content of 10 elements (Al, B, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Sr). Finally, hierarchical cluster analysis of CF grape and wine samples pointed out the similarity of the clones Nos. 010 and 012, since they were grouped within the same subcluster.