Students and teachers of Upper Secondary Technical School of Chemistry regularly participate at the Wine Festival at the Pardubice Castle to analyse the presented wine samples and try to issue them a ‚birth certificate‘. “Using capillary electrophoresis, we detect the presence of four elements – sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and, in cooperation with the University of Pardubice, almost all elements of the periodic table. The presence of individual elements is significantly influenced by geological subsoil, irrigation water and other factors of growing and producing wine. Elemental composition can be unmistakably authentic and unique for specific wines. Wines with an authentic ‚birth certificate‘ can prevent their possible counterfeiting”, explains Jan Ptáček, the school headmaster.

From previous years, the school has a database of nearly three hundred wine samples which offers an interesting possibility of comparing them. After the wine producers in France and Chile, where the urgent need for chemical analyse and creating of a wine database was established in connection with wine falsities, also small and medium-sized wineries in the Czech Republic will be able to prevent such abusive practices in the future, also thanks to the activity of the Pardubice Upper Secondary Technical School of Chemistry.