Identification of impact odorants of young red wines made with Merlot,Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache grape varieties: a comparative study

An Aroma Extract Dilution Analysis (AEDA) has been carried out on three monovarietal young red wines plus a mixture of wines aged one year. The aromograms contain 85 odour-active regions classified in four categories of intensity. The 11 most powerful odorants, 14 out of the 17 second-most powerful, and 34 of the rest could be identified using a HPLC prefractionation method and standard HRGC-MS-olfactometric techniques. The most active odorants of the monovarietal wines were isoamyl and β-phenylethyl alcohols, the ethyl esters of butyric, isobutyric, 2-methyl butyric and hexanoic acids, γ-nonalactone and eugenol. Some others worth mentioning are ethyl isovalerate, isoamyl acetate, hexanol, c-3-hexenol, linalool, geraniol, guaiacol, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl dihydrocinnamate, β-damascenone, δ-decalactone and wine lactone. Compounds with less aromatic intensity but also present in some of the wines were sotolon, isopropyl- and isobutylmethoxypyrazines and 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one. Data show that there are no impact compounds characteristic of only one variety, and that differences between varieties are quantitative rather than qualitative. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry