Abstract
Wooden barrels and wood chips are usually used in the ageing of spirits and wines to improve their sensorial profile. Oak wood is the most popular material used in cooperage, but there are other interesting woods, such as cherry or chestnut, that could be considered for this purpose. In this study, a novel method for the determination of the aromatic profile of wood powder by Direct Thermal Desorption-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (DTD-GC-MS) was optimized by experimental design. The volatile composition of five different types of wood chips was determined by direct analysis of wood powder by DTD-GC-MS method developed. Thirty-one compounds from wood were identified through this analysis, allowing the differentiation between woods. The aromatic and phenolic compound profile of the 50% hydroalcoholic extract of each type of wood studied was analyzed by Stir-bar Sorptive Extraction-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (SBSE-GC-MS) and Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) to determine which wood compounds are transferred to spirits and wine after ageing. Different phenolic profiles were found by UHPLC in each wood extract, allowing their differentiation. However, results obtained by SBSE-GC-MS did not allow distinguishing between wood extracts. The analysis of wood in solid state, without any type of previous treatment except grinding, by DTD-GC-MS does not imply any loss of information of the aromatic compounds present in wood as other techniques. This is a potential method to identify aromas in wood that, in addition, allows different types of wood to be differentiated.
Highlights
Ageing spirits and wines in wooden barrels or the use of wood chips are industrial common practices that change the sensorial profile of the product
There are many spirits such as armagnac, cognac, brandy, whisky, rum, tequila or grappa as well as wines, that are aged in barrels or use wood chips in their ageing processes in order to obtain a special aroma profile
Samples were in the form of wood chips (5–15 mm length × 5–10 mm width × 2 mm thickness) and 100 g of each wood were ground to a 0.25 μm grain size powder with an ultra-centrifugal mill ZM
Summary
Ageing spirits and wines in wooden barrels or the use of wood chips are industrial common practices that change the sensorial profile of the product. The structural characteristics and chemical composition of the wood are responsible for many of the processes that take place during the maturation period, affecting the composition of the spirits and wines, modulating their sensorial quality and complexity, such as aroma, structure or astringency and contributing to their stability. Wood characteristics, such as the geographical origin and botanical species [1,2,3,4,5,6], volume of the barrel [7] or chip size [8,9] and toasting level [3,10,11], affected the sensorial profile of the final product. All of them depend on many variables, as the composition of the wood, the atmospheric conditions or the type of distillate and its alcoholic strength
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