A capillary electrophoresis (CE) method has been developed and validated for
analysis of organic acids (oxalate, tartrate, malate, malonate, pyruvate, succinate,
acetate, citrate and lactate) and inorganic anions (sulfate and phosphate) in red wines.
The separations were carried out in an automated separation system equipped with
wide-bore (300 μm i.d.) fluoroplastic capillary with suppressed hydrodynamic and
electroosmotic flow. Contact conductivity detection was used for monitoring of the
separation and quantification of the analytes. Composition of carrier electrolyte was
optimized to achieve sufficient resolution of organic and inorganic acids and adequate
sensitivity of conductivity detection. The fast method (analysis time less than 5 min.)
provided a good linearity of calibration curves (R
2
> 0.992) for the studied
concentration range of the acids, as well as good reproducibility of migration times
(RSD < 1.5 %). The used fully automated separation system (sample dilution not
included) predetermined the developed CE method for routine analysis. In total 33 red
wines were analysed with the proposed method, including 22 Macedonian red wines
from various varieties and geographic areas as well as 11 commercial red wines from
different countries
