Aroma is one of the most important factors in determining wine character and quality (Clarke & Bakker, 2004). The aroma characteristics are the result of complex interactions among several
factors: vineyard geographical location (Koundouras, Marinos, Gkoulioti, Kotseridis, & van Leeuwen, 2006), which is related to soil and climate characteristics (Sabon, de Revel, Kotseridis, & Bertrand, 2002), grape variety (Armanino, selleck chemical Casolino, Casale, & Forina, 2008), yeast strain (Torrens, Riu-Aumatell, Lopez-Tamames, & Buxaderas, 2004), and technical conditions of wine-making, such as temperature used in grape maceration, frequency and intensity of maceration procedures (Esti & Tamborra, 2006). There is evidence that it is possible to establish clear relationships among the volatile fraction of foods or beverage and the following aspects: the raw material employed (Rocha, Coelho, Zrostlikova, Delgadillo, & Coimbra, 2007), the place
where material was originated (Green, Parr, Breitmeyer, Valentin, & Sherlock, 2011) and the process of production followed (Cardeal, Souza, Gomes da Silva, & Marriott, 2008). Characterisation RO4929097 purchase of foods and beverages based on volatile content may also be used as a tool for authentication, in order to protect the consumer and/or industry from fraud (Krist, Stuebiger, Bail, & Unterweger, 2006). In addition, volatile composition may be useful for characterisation and differentiation of wines from distinct varieties and for establishing criteria to improve the quality of the wines and guarantee their origin (Mildner-Szkudlarz & Jelen, 2008). In fact, knowledge about wine volatile profile may contribute to the achievement of a geographical indication, such as designation of origin, which serves as a benchmark and guarantees product consistency, defining
a product that is characteristic of a certain region (Addor & Grazioli, 2002). The volatile profile of wines, obtained with one-dimensional gas chromatography with a mass spectrometric detector (1D-GC/MS) has been already used for differentiation and classification of wines according to their geographical origin (Green et al., 2011) selleck monoclonal antibody or grape cultivar (Zhang et al., 2010), using different multivariate techniques. However, very little is reported having multidimensional chromatographic data as a basis (Robinson, Boss, Heymann, Solomon, & Trengove, 2011a). Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) emerged as a powerful analytical technique that is an excellent choice to unravel the composition of complex samples. This technique is based on the application of two GC columns coated with different stationary phases connected in series through a special interface called a modulator.