Classification and chemometric study of Southern Italy monovarietal wines based on NMR and HPLC-DAD-MS

There is increasing interest in development of methods for wine characterization to guarantee traceability and product safety. Metabolomics represents a valuable tool to trace the metabolic fingerprint of complex mixtures. Wines from 22 pure varieties (autochthonous from Southern Italy and grown in the same area of Apulia) were genetically identified and metabolically characterized using both NMR and HPLC-MS. NMR associated with chemometrics was used to identify amino acid (proline, alanine, and tyrosine), organic acid (malic, lactic, acetic, and succinic acids), alcohol (2-phenylethanol), sugar (sucrose), and polyphenol (gallic acid) contents. Minor components of wines were determined using HPLC-MS analyses. Wines showed potential health-promoting effects with good amounts of phenolic compounds. In particular, consistent levels of trans-resveratrol and flavonoids were found in Negro Amaro, Uva di Troia, Ancellotta, and Montepulciano wines.