"Vino cotto", a typical product mainly produced in central Italy, is obtained by fermenting cooked must. Nine "vino cotto" samples from the Abruzzo region were analysed for their chemical composition. Alcohol content ranged from 8 to 16%, reducing sugars content from 83 to 350 g L -1 and total acidity from 9 to 19 g L-1 of tartaric acid. On the basis of compositional data and literature data, "vino cotto" can be classified as either a dry or sweet dessert wine depending on the chemical composition. The must cooking process caused the activation of non-enzymatic browning reactions and the formation of Maillard reaction products (MRPs). The radical scavenging activity (RSA) of "vino cotto" was tested by the DPPH· and ABTS+· decolouration assays. The RSA is highly correlated with both the polyphenol and MRP content; these two classes of compounds showed an additive combined effect on RSA. Phenolic (PE) and non-phenolic (NPE) extracts were obtained from "vino cotto" and the MRPs were mainly eluted with the NPE. The sum of the antioxidant activities of the two extracts were equal to the total RSA of "vino cotto" samples. In highly browned "vino cotto" samples the antioxidant activity of NPE was higher than that of PE and accounted for 56% of the overall antioxidant activity