Phenolic Analysis and Theoretic Design for Chinese Commercial Wines' Authentication

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Food Science
• Chemometrics

Background:

• Accurate authentication of wine origin and characteristics is crucial for the wine industry.
• Chinese commercial wines require robust tools for varietal, regional, and vintage identification.
• Phenolic compounds are key indicators of wine's chemical profile and authenticity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and compare statistical methods for authenticating Chinese commercial dry red wines.
• To identify key phenolic compounds significant for wine differentiation.
• To propose a theoretical design for practical wine authentication.

Main Methods:

• Quantification of phenolic compounds using high-performance liquid chromatography-triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC-QqQ-MS/MS).
• Comparative analysis of Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), and Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA).
• Application of OPLS-DA for differentiating wines based on variety, region, and vintage.

Main Results:

• OPLS-DA models achieved ideal differentiation of Chinese red wines by variety, region, and vintage.
• Key phenolic compounds influencing sample differentiation were identified using OPLS-DA's S-plot.
• The study demonstrated the potential of OPLS-DA for detailed regional and vintage authentication.

Conclusions:

• OPLS-DA is a superior statistical tool for varietal, regional, and vintage authentication of Chinese red wines compared to PCA and PLS-DA.
• The identified phenolic markers provide insights into wine characteristics.
• A novel theoretical framework for practical wine authentication was proposed.