Exploration of lipid profiles in wine musts by untargeted and targeted LC and GC-MS: influence of static settling

This study provides an in-depth description of lipids found in nine white grape musts from different varieties and the impact of settling on them. The untargeted LC-QTOF/MS approach, used for the first time on grape musts, enabled the detection of 562 lipids, 112 of which were identified with high confidence. Targeted quantification methods using GC-MS and LC-MS further allowed the quantification of a total of 370 lipids across nine lipid classes.; This study highlights the presence of steryl esters, phosphatidylethanolamines, and phosphatidylinositols in the liquid must matrix, a novel finding distinct from their previously reported presence in whole grape berries. Moreover, clarification influenced all the lipid classes analyzed. Interestingly, 73% of the lipid species present in the grape musts were significantly affected (p-value < 0.05), including key compounds such as unsaturated fatty acids and sterols involved in alcoholic fermentation. Our results show the effect of clarification on the quantity of different lipid families that had never been reported previously. Future studies should investigate the impact of lipid depletion on fermentation kinetics and wine sensory profiles.