RESUMO
Some special sweet wines are obtained by partial fermentation of musts from off-vine dried grapes containing large amounts of sugars. This process is very slow and subject to serious stop problems that can be avoided by using osmo-ethanol-tolerant yeasts. Musts containing 371g/l of sugars were partially fermented with selected Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, X4 and X5, to 12% (v/v) and the wines obtained with X5 exhibited a higher volatile acidity but lower concentrations of higher alcohols, carbonyl compounds and polyols than those obtained with X4. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the data provided by an electronic nose (E-nose) afforded discrimination between fermented and unfermented musts, but not between wines obtained with X4 or X5. The PCA applied to the major volatile compounds and polyols shows similar results, but a clear discrimination between wines is obtained by removing the polyols glycerol and 2,3-butanediol from the PCA.
RESUMO
Changes in 36 volatile compounds of must from ripe grapes dried by direct exposure to sun and must from ripe grapes were studied. Compounds not dependent on sampling site in both musts were selected, and their concentration/Brix degree ratio values, were subjected to variance analysis. Only butan-1-ol and isoamyl alcohols showed no differences, while (E)-hex-3-en-1-ol, (Z)-hex-3-en-1-ol, (E)-hex-2-en-1-ol, (E)-hex-2-enal, hexanoic acid, isobutanol, benzyl alcohol, 2-phenylethanol, gamma-butyrolactone, gamma-hexalactone, and 5-methylfurfural, showed significant differences between the two must types, which may be ascribed to the drying process. An approach to describe must odor has been carried out by grouping volatile compounds in aromatic series, increasing their values in the fruity, solvent, sweet, and roasted series and diminishing the herbaceous as a consequence of the drying process.