Chemical composition of red wines made from hybrid grape and common grape ( Vitis vinifera L. ) cultivars

Abstract

© 2014, Estonian Academy Publishers. All rights reserved. Since the formulation of the “French paradox”, red grape wines are generally considered to be health-promoting products rather than culpable alcoholic beverages. The total wine production, totalling an equivalent of 30 billion 750 mL bottles in 2009, only verifies the fact that global demand is increasing and that the polyphenols present in wines are accounting for a significant proportion of the daily antioxidant intake of the general population. Both statements justify the interest of new regions to be self-sufficient in the wine production. Novel cold tolerant hybrid grape varieties also make it possible to produce wines in regions where winter temperatures fall below - 30 °C and the yearly sum of active temperatures does not exceed 1750 °C. Also the greater disease resistance of hybrid grapes - which allows production with less chemical plant protection agents - attracts attention. It is understood that the new regions and varieties raise questions about the quality of these wines. Therefore, the aim of our work was to determine to which extent wines produced from hybrid grapes differ from wines vinified from common grapes regarding their phenolic, saccharidic, and acidic spectra and elemental composition. Results demonstrate that although the polyphenolic spectra of red wines produced from hybrid grapes are generally similar to those of traditional wines, they show a wider range of anthocyanins, a balanced phenolic acid profile, qualitative differences in saccharide composition, and a very low heavy metal content.