RELIABILITY OF THE SPANISH OFFICIAL METHOD FOR COLOR OF RED WINES IN COMPARISON WITH THE CIE 1931-(X, Y) METHOD

The Spanish official method for determining the colour of a wine is based on a simplified adaptation of the selected ordinate method from CIE. Forty-seven samples of Spanish red wines from twelve 'origin appellations' have been tested by both methods. Differences between the chromatic variables calculated by both methods have been obtained for determining the reliability of the Spanish method. An interval of chromatic variables in which differences oscillated within a narrow range and another interval with a linear increase of differences were found. Some chromatic parameters show cutpoints between the two sets of samples. A discriminant analysis for classifying wines in the two sets has been carried out. © 1990.