Grape skins and seeds are sources of various quality characters of grapevine varieties, such as phenolic compounds, anthocyanins, resveratrol etc. The Greek vineyard is characterized by a large number of indigenous grapevine varieties which remain almost unexploited in terms of their different phenolic content. The aim of this study was to assay the polyphenolic content of seven red native Greek grapevine varieties (‘Kolliniatiko’, ‘Bekari’, ‘Bakouri’, ‘Kountoura mavri’, ‘Doubrena mavri’, ‘Thrapsa’, and ‘Mavro Spetson’) using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with a diode array detector and spectrophotometer. All studied varieties were cultivated in the same area and under the same conditions. The results revealed that despite the fact that anthocyanins and phenolic compounds content were in high levels for all varieties, statistically significant differences were recorded among them. The highest anthocyanins concentration was recorded in ‘Kolliniatiko’, while the lowest anthocyanins concentration was recorded in ‘Mavro Spetson’. Grapevine variety ‘Mavro Spetson’ presented the highest concentration of total phenolic compounds, with statistically significant difference compared to ‘Kountoura mavri’ and ‘Bekari’. Grapevine varieties ‘Kolliniatiko’ and ‘Bekari’ presented the highest concentrations in trans-resveratrol and piceid content, while grapevine variety ‘Doubrena mavri’ presented the highest concentration in vanillin content. These unexploited rare native cultivated varieties contained appreciable amounts of non-colored phenols as well as anthocyanins, meaning that they would be worthy of further study and use for the production of quality wines.

The aim of this study was the identification and discrimination of 49 grapevine varieties that are cultivated in northern, western and central Greece with the use of the ampelographic description and the molecular method RAPD. The grapevine varieties were located in their cultivation centers and the studied samples were collected from productive vineyards of these regions. For the ampelographic description, 22 ampelographic characters were used following a list of descriptors developed by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), while for the molecular analysis 8 of the most polymorphic primers were used. The results showed that: (a) there is high degree of genetic heterogeneity among most of the varieties studied, (b) grapevine varieties ‘Xinomavro’ and ‘Zalovitiko’ exhibited identity with both methods used, therefore the latter constitutes a synonym/clone of the former, (c) high degree of genetic similarity was recorded between cv ‘Stavroto’ and ‘Abelakiotiko’, a result enhancing the view that they constitute biotypes/clones of an original/parent variety and originated through the accumulation of mutations, (d) a previous hypothesis is confirmed. This hypothesis states that in the vineyards of northern Greece, different varieties of Vitis vinifera L. as well as hybrids (direct producers) were imported. Names/synonyms were given to these imported varieties and hybrids related to their place of origin or the morphological traits of the grape/berries implying identity among them (‘Mavroudi’, ‘Voulgariko’, ‘Voulgaroudia’, ‘Vapsa’ etc.), while they are different varieties, (e) the combination of the ampelographic description and the molecular method RAPD is very effective in the identification and discrimination of grapevine cultivars.