Characterization of grapes cultivated in Sardinia: chemometric methods applied to the anthocyaninc fraction

A characterization of red varieties of Vitis vinifera cultivated on the island of Sardinia was done on the basis of their anthocyanin profile obtained by means of HPLC analysis. A comparison between the data on Sardinian varieties and those on continental ones, contained in a reference data bank, was performed. _The chemometric method employed was Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). The variability of anthocyanin patterns of some varieties, related to different growing areas, ripening stages and training system was tested in relation to this classification method. This approach showed similarities and differences among varieties, which can usefully support ampelographic and ampelometric description for their characterization.