Estimation of the aroma potential of Grapes

Resumen

Wine suffers important chemical transformations since the end of the fermentation process till
the moment of consumption, whose object is the stabilization and maturation and fining of
wine organoleptic character. Within this context, the goal of the work is to understand the
wine ageing process as a result of different enological variables involved in the formation of
sensory active molecules in wine. In particular, we aim to study the potential aromatic
composition of wine as a function of its aroma precursor content along with the generation
and degradation kinetics under the ageing conditions occurring in wine. For this purpose a
series of model solutions supplemented with, either flavor precursors extracted from different
grape varieties, or with pure aromatic compounds, were submitted to an accelerated ageing
(45ºC for 60 days) simulating maturation in the bottle. Volatile compounds derived from grape
flavor precursors were extracted by SPE and determined by GC‐MS after diferent times of
ageing. The model wine spiked with the pure aromatic compounds was employed to monitor
the hydrolysis kinetics and compounds stability. On the other hand, in the solution spiked with
flavor precursors, major differences in concentration were observed during the first week of
accelerated ageing. Most compounds exhibited an initial significant increase and further
steady decrease in their concentrations. Results from this experiment were employed to
establish a mathematical model to determine the number of aromatic compounds present at
different moments of the ageing process.