Classification of red wines using suitable markers coupled with multivariate statistic analysis.

Methodologies for chemometric classification of five authentic red wine varieties from Murfatlar wine center, Romania, young and aged are reported. The discriminant analysis based on several anthocyanins, organic acids, (13)C/(12)C, (18)O/(16)O and D/H isotopic ratios, (1)H and (13)C NMR fingerprints revealed a very satisfactory categorization of the wines, both in terms of variety and vintage, thus illustrating the validity of selected variables for wine authentication purposes. LDA applied to the combined data shows 85.7% classification of wines according to grape variety and 71.1% classification of wines according to vintage year, including a control wine set for each categorization, thus allowing an accurate interpretation of the data. Thereby, anthocyanins, certain anthocyanin ratios, oxalic, shikimic, lactic, citric and succinic acids, sugars like glucose, amino acids like histidine, leucine, isoleucine and alanine, and also 2,3-butanediol, methanol, glycerol and isotopic variables were significant for classification of wines.