Varietal differentiation of white wines on the basis of phenolic compounds profile

Abstract

The authenticity of grapevine varieties is a very important topic in the Czech Republic, where varietal wines is very important for wine drinkers. The wines from 7 grapevine varieties were investigated. Sixteen phenolic compounds belonging among hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids, stilbenes, and flavan-3-ols were analysed by HPLC method. The aim of this study was to find markers of varietal origin of wines among the phenolic compounds studied. The analytical parameters obtained were evaluated for this purpose by CVA (canonical varietal analysis) method. It proved to be successful in detecting the following grapevine variety authenticity markers: hydroxycinnamic acids (i.e. p-coutaric acid and caftaric acid), hydroxybenzoic acids (protocatechuic acid and syringic acid), and flavan-3-ols ((-)-epicatechin and (+)-catechin).