The profiling of phenolic compounds in archive Tokaj wines using liquid chromatography and antioxidant activity analysis

Archive Tokaj wines from the vineyards in the Slovak part of the Tokaj region have been characterized in terms of the content of phenolic compounds specific to that type of botrytized wine. More than 60 archive samples (1959-2017) were evaluated in terms of phenolic profile. Eighteen individual phenolic compounds were quantified by UHPLC-DAD method. The total concentration of phenolic compounds in the wines ranged from 58.28 to 302.57 mg/L. The most abundant compound in the phenolic profile was caftaric acid with average values of around 60 mg/L followed by catechin ranging from 2.24 to 49.35 mg/L, gallic acid with a mean concentration of 14.65 mg/L, and vanillic acid. Statistical evaluation using PCA and SIMCA model showed significant correlations between the phenolic profile, botrytized/non-botrytized wines, and their origin. Total antioxidant capacity determination using a CoulArray detector proved the correlation between the "putňa" number of Tokaj selections and antioxidant activity of wines.