Anthocyanin Composition and Colour Characteristics of Selected Aged Wines Produced in Greece

Twenty-seven Greek aged red wines were evaluated for their colour characteristics using well-established spectrophotometric methodology. Further, the analytical anthocyanin composition was assayed employing reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography HPLC with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). As additional parameters for the interpretation of differences observed between wines, the total phenol (TP) and total flavanol (TF) contents were also determined. Total anthocyanin (TA) content varied from 44.3 mg l-1 to 363.1 mg l-1 as determined spectrophotometrically, whereas the HPLC analyses showed that monomeric anthocyanin content was from 0.0 mg l-1 to 203.8 mg l-1. Coloured (ionised) anthocyanin content ranged from 2.3 mg l-1 to 37.2 mg l-1. On average, 9.7% of the anthocyanins were found to be co-pigmented and 66.4% polymerised. In addition, it was observed that the chemical age of the wines was correlated with -log(TAHPLC/TP) but less so with -log(TAHPLC/TF).