Background: The Hellenic vineyard embraces a large number of native cultivars, which are mostly unexploited for their ageing potential. Therefore, it was thought that analyzing some quality parameters of 14 red wines produced by rare native varieties would be of great importance in obtaining a general picture of their potential for commercial use. Various analytical methods were applied to the selected wines, at bottling and after 8 years of ageing, in an attempt to provide reliable answers to this issue. In addition, it was of interest to investigate the alteration of the phenolic content and color parameters of the wines after extended bottle storage and to evaluate the overall changes with respect to their sensory properties.
Results: Most of the oligomeric phenolic compounds identified in the wines studied diminished after 8 years of bottle storage, while significant correlations were obtained between wine chemical composition and sensory data.
Conclusions: After 8 years of bottle storage some of the unexploited varieties (Vitis vinifera) were found to be worthy of further study and use for the production of quality wines. Wines with the best sensory characteristics were those made by Limniona, Mavrotragano, Bakouri, Thrapsa and Mavrothiriko, in accordance (more or less) with the results of chemical analyses.
Keywords: bottle ageing; color parameters; polyphenolic compounds; red wine.
© 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.