| Abstract
| - The presence of stilbenes in wine is becoming an important issue due to their claimed relation to alow incidence in coronary diseases and their increasing implication as cancer chemopreventive andneuroprotective agents. Total resveratrol content, quantified as glucoside and aglycone forms ofresveratrol, has been determined in a survey of 45 Monastrell monovarietal Spanish red wine types(around 135 wine samples), belonging to Alicante and Bullas appellations. The average betweenratio glucoside/aglycone forms of resveratrol in these wines was considerably high, ranging from 82to 91% of resveratrol in its glycosidic form. This characteristic was observed in a high percentage ofthe studied wines, which were made under different winemaking procedures, and from differentvintages (1995−2002). In addition, wines made using macerative fermentations with double amountof solid parts (“doble pasta”) reached the highest levels of total stilbene content expressed asresveratrol equivalent, i.e., 30 mg/L (average of 18.8 mg/L). It can be concluded that high resveratrolglucoside concentration and low free isomer content can be considered characteristics of the Monastrellvariety, as it happens to red wines deriving from other varieties grown at warm climates. This fact,also observed for other French and Portuguese red varieties, might play an important role in foodhabits involving these types of wines. Keywords: Resveratrol; piceid; red wine; Monastrell; HPLC
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