Lead Concentrations and Isotopic Signatures in Vintages of French Wine between 1950 and 1991

Vintages of French wine from 1950 to 1991 were analyzed for lead isotopes and concentration to investigate whether they might be used to archive the isotopic composition of the anthropogenic lead in aerosols to which the vineyard was exposed. Early vintages (1950–1980) contained 78–227 ng/g of lead with206Pb/207Pb ratios between 1.152 and 1.173, while the later vintages displayed significantly lower concentrations and a smaller range of isotopic ratios. The concentration of trimethyl lead, which is associated with automobile emissions, was found to be poorly correlated with total lead in the wines, suggesting that automobile aerosols were not a significant source of the lead. This result was supported by lead isotope data which showed a poor correlation with the available petrol and aerosol data. To identify its origin lead isotopes were measured in vineyard aerosols, soil particles, bottle caps, corks, and brass components used to dispense the wine. Although a dominant source could not be identified there was some evidence to suggest that brass which had a high lead concentration was a significant contributor. Because the lead contribution from the processing of wine was probably relatively high in the past it is unlikely that old vintages of wine will be a suitable archive for lead isotopes in aerosols.