Biogenic Amine Content in Red Wines from Different Protected Designations of Origin of Southern Italy: Chemometric Characterization and Classification

Biogenic amines are contaminants naturally present in wines. Their occurrence is influenced by several factors including oenological and agricultural practices, grape variety, and geographical origin. For these reasons, they have been chosen as marker to characterize and classify 56 Italian red wines belonging to four protected designations of origin (PDO) from Southern Italy. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were applied on data obtained by HPLC/RF in order to highlight the natural grouping of samples. Afterward, linear discriminant analysis and partial least squares were used to classify the wines according to their PDO. Biogenic amines are demonstrated to be a reliable and useful marker for the characterization and classification of the four Southern Italian PDOs investigated. Both the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and the partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) achieved 100 % of wines correctly classified and predicted. Therefore, the determination of these compounds in red wines can play an important role in wine quality assessment, by providing information for the prevention of potential detrimental effects on health and for the characterization of PDO labeled wines.