Discrimination of wine aroma using an array of conducting polymer sensors in conjunction with solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) technique

A set of 12 polymeric sensors has been tested as an artificial olfactory system for the identification of wines. Three white and two red Spanish wines produced in different locations where analysed by using two alternative sampling methods. A commercial headspace sampler was not successful in concentrating the specific odorants of the different wines, whereas the solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) technique led to some promising results. By using a selective SPME-fibre, principal component analysis of the data allowed a clear discrimination of the aromas, even for wines that had very similar organoleptic characteristics.