Primary amino acid profiles of Greek white wines and their use in classification according to variety, origin and vintage

Forty-two Greek white wines from six grape varieties and several geographic regions have been analysed for primary amino acids by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography, using precolumn derivatization with omicron-phthalaldehyde and fluorescence detection. A methodology was developed in order to enable the analysis of a large number of samples, in a quick and reliable way. The amino acid content of Greek white wines was within the range of values reported for other European wines. Wines from Chardonnay, Muscat white and Muscat d'Alexandrie grape varieties, had high amino acid contents, while wines from Asyrtiko, Moschofilero and Debina were characterized by substantially lower amounts of free amino acids. Arginine, gamma-amino, butyric acid, lysine, alanine, glycine, aspartic acid, and leucine were the most abundant amino acids. In about 29% of the white wine samples examined, the malolactic fermentation has occurred, resulting in lower arginine, gamma-amino butyric acid and methionine values for these samples. The amino acid profiles have been useful in the classification of white wines according to grape variety, vintage, geographic origin and type of vinification by means of statistical methods. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.