Fruity flavor increase of Spanish Airen white wines made by brief fermentation skin contact

Laboratory scale vinification assays were carried out with musts of the Spa nish Airen white variety from the 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993 vintages from V aldepenas, Spain, which were fermented both with and without skins. The var iables involved in the statistical functions that discriminated between win es of different vintages were magnesium, potassium, iron, absorbance at 320 nm, total acidity, succinic acid and the 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-methyl-1 -butanol ratio. The wines fermented with skins contained higher concentrati ons of methanol, proline, ethyl acetate, glycerol and ashes than did those fermented without skins. The sensory profile method showed a considerable i mprovement in the fruity flavor as a result of mild maceration with the ski ns during the first 48 hours of fermentation of Airen wines.