Phenolic Antioxidants in Cypriot Wines as a Tool for Their Varietal Discrimination： Preliminary Results

A total of 56 wines from different vintages and wine-growing regions of Cyprus where analyzed for 6 biologically interesting phenolic antioxidants (gallic acid, catechin, epicatechin, coumaric and feroulic acid) by High Performance Liquid Chromatography. The study includes red and white Cypriot authentic wines from local and imported varieties that were produced under the same vinification conditions at a Model Winery. Results extracted after the chemometric analysis of the measured concentrations, show a strong relationship of the phenolic antioxidative capacity with the variety of the wines and gallic acid followed by vanillic acid found in the highest concentrations of the other antioxidants studied. Comparing the concentrations found with bibliographic data for wines from other countries, it was found that the concentration levels of vanillic and ferulic acid was significantly higher for Cypriot wines.