Characterization of the volatile fraction of young wines from the Denomination of Origin “Vinos de Madrid” (Spain) Original Research Article

Twenty-five volatile compounds of 71 white, 53 rose and 70 red commercial young wines, representative for the young wines commercialized under the Denomination of Origin (DO) “Vinos de Madrid” (Spain) were analyzed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Odor activity values (OAV) of 21 of them were calculated, also. Twenty-four of the 25 determined odor compounds were found in the three types of wines, which means that the differences between white, rose and red wines are essentially quantitative, rather than qualitative. 4-Vinyl-guayacol was typical only for the white wines. Thirteen of the 21 odor compounds with determined OAVs had significant relevance to the global aroma of the white and rose and 12 of the red wines. Among them (in diminishing order of odor importance) ethyl octanoate, ethyl hexanoate, isoamyl acetate and isovaleric acid were the most determinant for the aroma of the white and rose wines, whereas, ethyl octanoate, isovaleric acid, isoamyl acetate and ethyl hexanoate were for the red wines. Discriminant statistic analysis showed that the isoamylic alcohols, higher major alcohols, ethyl hexanoate, acetates, ethyl octanoate, 4-vinyl-guaiacol and decanoic acid were the most significant compounds in the differentiation between the white, rose and red young wines. The same analysis showed correct classification of 96.6% of the wines (92.1% cross-validation), according to their type (white, rose or red).