Varietal Typicity and Sustainability Potential of Indigenous Wines from Historical Moldavia: An Integrated Physicochemical and Sensory Characterization

Indigenous grape cultivars are important components of regional wine heritage, but their sustainability-related value must be evaluated without inferring vineyard performance from wine composition alone. This study characterized 49 commercial monovarietal wines produced from Fetească albă, Fetească regală, Fetească neagră, and Băbească neagră (syn. Rară neagră) in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Physicochemical parameters were predicted using a dedicated Fourier-transform infrared wine analyzer, and a 22-member experienced panel evaluated sensory attributes. Each commercial wine, rather than each technical determination, was treated as the independent observational unit. General linear models, Welch tests, hierarchical cluster analysis, and principal component analysis were used according to the structure of the dataset. The only confirmatory result for white wines was an origin effect and a cultivar × origin interaction for transformed fructose; no main effect of cultivar was detected. Within Fetească neagră, no physicochemical parameter differed significantly between the two origins. Statistics illustrated multivariate variation among samples based on physicochemical and sensory characteristics, with the first two components explaining 40.17–55.25% of the total variance. The central conclusion is that these commercial wines display broad compositional and sensory diversity, while the unbalanced observational design prevents causal attribution to cultivar, origin, climate, soil, or production practices. The dataset therefore provides an exploratory baseline for regional wine characterization and for future balanced, multi-vintage studies of indigenous cultivars.