Quantification of cysteine S-conjugate of 3-sulfanylhexan-1-ol in must and wine of petite arvine vine by stable isotope dilution analysis

Making use of a convenient synthetic approach to prepare the deuterated S-3-(hexan-1-ol)-cysteine by a Michael addition reaction, an analytical method was developed to measure the presence of the cysteine S-conjugate, precursor of 3-sulfanylhexan-1-ol (3-mercaptohexan-1-ol), in must and wine from Petite Arvine vine. The method uses a stable isotope dilution assay with a suitable one-step sample preparation and HPLC-MS detection. The method has limits of detection and quantification of 3 and 10 microg/L, respectively. A correlation between the increase of the precursor concentration and the increase of the degree of rot has been established.