Aromatic and chemical differences between Msalais wines produced at traditional craft workshops and modern plants

Abstract

The making of Msalais, a traditional wine fermented in the A′wati production region in Southern Xinjiang (China), currently undergoes a shift from traditional craft workshop (TCW) fermentation to modern plant (MP) production. Major differences in the practices, technology, and microbes used in TCWs and MPs caused the quality of MP wines somewhat deviates from high quality of TCWs wine. Exploring the sensory and chemical differences between TCW wines and MP wines will facilitate a successful shift of Msalais-making from TCWs to MPs. Here, the sensory and chemical characters of 25 TCW and MP Msalais wines were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. Laboratory-scale Msalais-making experiments were performed to compare the effect of winemaking conditions on the sensory characters of wine. MP wines had a stronger caramel odor, but a relatively weaker floral and fruity odors than TCW wines, while TCW wines had a significantly stronger fruity odor but a weaker caramel odor than MP wines(p < 0.05). These differences could be ascribed to the higher content of higher alcohols, furans, and methionol in MP wines, and a higher concentration of esters, fatty acids, volatile phenols, terpenes, lactones, and norisoprenoids in TCW wines. Differences in grape residue treatment, grape juice concentration, native microbial community, dissolved oxygen levels, and fermentation temperature resulted in the sensory differences between Msalais wines. These findings will help to improve the quality of MP Msalais to retain the typical sensory features of traditional TCWs wines, and allowing an objective control of the TCW and MP technologies.