Studying the evolution of anthocyanin-derived pigments in a typical red wine of Southern Italy to assess its resistance to aging

In this study, the pigments of a young and 2 years old Primitivo red wines were investigated by using a column chromatography purification/fractionation step followed by HPLC-UV-ESI-MSn. Compounds such as malvidin 3O-acetyl-4-vinyl-procyanidin, malvidin 3O-glucoside-di(epi)-catechin, and A-type peonidin and malvidin 3O-glucoside-(epi)catechin were identified in Primitivo for the first time; furthermore, this is a further evidence that malvidin 3O-glucoside-malvidin 3O-(p-coumaroyl)-glucoside and (malvidin 3O-glucoside)3 can survive to the wine aging. Overall, the found anthocyanin-derived pigments were formed by malvidin, peonidin, and petunidin, which were mainly involved in the formation of pyranonathocyanins derivatives, accounting for 49% of the total content in the aged wine. The relative amounts of compounds, such as flavanol-anthocyanin adducts, which gave blue hues to the samples decreased whilst the reddish or violet ethyledene-bridge favanol-anthocyanin adducts increased in the aged wine. The predominance of pyranoanthocyanins, characterized by known higher stability compared to ethylidene-bridge favanol-anthocyanin and anthocyanin-flavanol compounds, and maybe their early formation (within two years) could be responsible for the reported rapid change of Primitivo color into orange hues, but also it would be able to slow down the natural loss of structure which wine is subject to.