Abstract
Wine aroma strongly influences wine quality, yet its composition and its evolution during the winemaking process are poorly understood. Volatile compounds that constitute wine aroma are traditionally divided into three classes according to their origin: grape, fermentation, and maturation aroma. We challenge this view with meta-analysis and review of grape and wine volatiles and their precursors from 82 profiling experiments. We compiled a list of 141 common grape and wine volatiles and quantitatively compared 43 of them. Our work offers insight into complex relationships between biosynthesis of aroma in grapes and the changes during the winemaking process. Monoterpenes are one of the largest and most researched wine aroma compounds. We show that their diversity in wines is mainly due to the oxidative metabolism of linalool in grapes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that most of the linalool produced in grapes is converted to these oxidized derivatives.
Highlights
A crucial determinant of the wine quality is aroma, the composition of which is still not fully understood, due mainly to the interactions of the genetic factors with the environment
The remaining 141 validated volatile compounds (Table 2) were assigned to one of the 12 classes based on their chemical structure and biosynthetic origin
Authors of most reviews make a clear distinction between grape and fermentation derived wine aroma (Ebeler, 2001; Dunlevy et al, 2009; Styger et al, 2011; Robinson et al, 2014) and use a different classification of wine aroma components
Summary
A crucial determinant of the wine quality is aroma, the composition of which is still not fully understood, due mainly to the interactions of the genetic factors with the environment. This knowledge is necessary to ensure consistent production of high quality wines (Polášková et al, 2008). Wine aroma is a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds. The strength of aroma of a particular compound is expressed as an odor detection threshold, which is the lowest concentration perceivable to the human smell. Compounds with low sensory thresholds are often responsible for the characteristic smell of a particular food (Dunkel et al, 2014)
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