Volatile profile and potential of inactive dry yeast‐based winemaking additives to modify the volatile composition of wines

BACKGROUND: With the objective of determining the potential of winemaking additives based on inactive dry yeast (IDY) to modify the volatile composition of wines, gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry was employed to characterize the volatile profile of a widely used IDY preparation. To have the most accurate picture of the volatile compounds, pressurized liquid extraction technique (PLE) was used with different solvents and extraction temperatures. Complementary headspace solid‐phase microextraction was applied to gain insight into the volatile composition. In addition, the ability of some target volatile (pyrazines) to be released into model wines was investigated. RESULTS: The PLE technique was mainly suitable for the extraction of volatile compounds with a low to medium molecular weight and the best extraction yields were obtained by using apolar solvents (hexane) and high temperatures (150 °C). PLE in combination with solid‐phase microextraction allowed the identification of 35 volatile compounds, most of them heterocyclic‐containing nitrogen compounds formed during the processing of IDY that could be released into the wines: the signal of four target masses corresponding to 2,5‐dimethylpyrazine, trimethylpyrazine, methylbutylpyrazine and 2‐ethyl‐3,5‐dimethylpyrazine increased in the synthetic wines after 13 days when IDY was left in the model wines. CONCLUSION: The study confirmed that some volatile compounds identified in IDY which were formed during processing could be released into the wines which might modify wine aroma composition. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry