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 mon ovarietal young red wines plus a mixture of wines aged one year. The aromog rams contain 85 odour-active regions classified in four categories of inten sity. 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 metho d and standard HRGC-MS-olfactometric techniques. The most active odorants o f the monovarietal wines were isoamyl and beta-phenylethyl alcohols, the et hyl esters of butyric, isobutyric, 2-methyl butyric and hexanoic acids, gam ma-nonalactone and eugenol. Some others worth mentioning are ethyl isovaler ate, isoamyl acetate, hexanol, c-3-hexenol, linalool, geraniol, guaiacol, e thyl cinnamate, ethyl dihydrocinnamate, beta-damascenone, delta-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 com pounds characteristic of only one variety, and that differences between var ieties are quantitative rather than qualitative. (C) 1999 Society of Chemic al Industry.