QUANTITATIVE-DETERMINATION OF POTENT FLAVOR COMPOUNDS IN BURGUNDY PINOT-NOIR WINES USING A STABLE-ISOTOPE DILUTION ASSAY

A specific experimental procedure suitable for the quantification of f our esters recently identified in a wine of Vitis vinifera cv. Pinot N oir, ethyl dihydrocinnamate (A), ethyl cinnamate (B), methyl anthranil ate (C), and ethyl anthranilate (D), was developed and applied to 33 B urgundy wines (calculated on three replicates). The method, involving a stable isotope dilution assay, allows the determination of concentra tions from 0.05 mu g L-1, with a repeatability better than 10%. The me an, maximum, and minimum amounts found for the four esters were as fol lows (in mu g L-1): (A) 1.6, 3.2, 0.8; (B) 0.8, 1.6, 0.5; (C) 0.2, 0.6 , 0.06; (D) 2.4, 4.8, 0.6. Differences between wines, according to the ir concentrations and the nature of the esters, were visualized by pri ncipal component analysis. An analysis of variance indicated that ethy l anthranilate was the most important for wine differentiation.