Abstract
The traditional ageing of wine spirits is done in wooden barrels, however, high costs have led to the search for alternative technologies, such as the use of stainless steel tanks with wooden staves and the application of micro-oxygenation. This work evaluates the changes in the major volatile compounds of wine spirits aged for 6, 12 and 18 months in wooden barrels and stainless steel tanks with micro-oxygenation. For both ageing technologies, two types of wood (Limousin oak and Portuguese chestnut wood) were used. The samples were analysed concerning their alcohol strength (electronic densimetry) and volatile composition, namely of methanol, acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate and other major volatile compounds ((GC-FID) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR)). The results show that the ageing technology was more influential than the wood species for the volatile composition of wine spirits, namely acetaldedehyde, methanol, 2-methylpropan-1-ol and 2+3-methylbutan-1-ol. However, the opposite behaviour was found for the spectral data. The ageing process was accelerated by using the alternative ageing technology, especially with chestnut wood staves. The most informative spectral regions to discriminate samples were around 6859 cm−1 and from 5200 cm−1 to 4200 cm−1. NIR is a promising technique to identify different technologies and different wood species used in the ageing process of wine spirits.
Highlights
The traditional ageing of wine spirits consists of placing the drink, after the distillation, in wooden barrels for a more or less prolonged period of time
The wine spirit is mainly composed of ethanol and water, and of several volatile compounds, which mainly result from the grapes and from the fermentation process [2]
The wood species significantly influenced the concentration of some volatile compounds in the wine spirits, such as acetaldehyde, considering the ageing time up to 360 days; this factor affected almost all of the analysed compounds for the period up to 540 days of ageing (Tables 1 and 2)
Summary
The traditional ageing of wine spirits consists of placing the drink, after the distillation, in wooden barrels for a more or less prolonged period of time. During this stage, and as a result of physical, chemical and sensory changes, the quality of the drink greatly increases. The beverage is usually sold after this process. The wine spirit is mainly composed of ethanol and water, and of several volatile compounds, which mainly result from the grapes and from the fermentation process [2]. The main volatile compounds, usually called major volatiles, are acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate, methanol and fusel alcohols.
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