Decoding the Volatile Profile of White Romanian Fetească Wines

Abstract

The wine’s volatilome, most of the time, defines not only its aroma, but also, its major attributes. In the case of wines, the authentication process has become imperative, in light of increased production of alcoholic beverages; consequently, reliable analytical methods have served for it. Therefore, the goal of this research was to establish the global volatile profile of traditional Romanian white wines from Fetească varieties (Fetească albă, Fetească regală) in order to identify its unique characteristics by means of a headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography analysis (HS-SPME/GC-MS) and e-Nose devoted techniques. Statistics was also employed aimed at differentiating the analyzed wine by varietal groups. Consequently, 23 volatile compounds were detected and quantified in 39 Fetească white wine samples originating from various production areas (Muntenia, Oltenia, Transylvania, Banat and Dobrogea), then further classified according to their odor thresholds in five aromatic classes (floral, fruity, sweet, lactic (cheesy) and other). In addition, statistics (Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Hieratical Clustering Analysis (HCA)) were used aiming to differentiate the analyzed varietal groups. The outcomes have pointed out the existence of distinct clusters connected with ethyl esters or alcohol composition and production year, depending on each examined variety.