Analysis of Wine Impact Odorants by Gas Chromatography-Olfactometry

Aroma is a primary determinant of wine quality, consumer acceptance, and preference. More than one thousand aroma compounds may be responsible for the aroma of wines. Despite the fact that many aromatic compounds are available in wines, the application of gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) in flavor analysis is considered to be a valuable technique to characterize odor-active compounds responsible for the characteristic odor of a wine sample. GC-O is based on the use of human assessors, a sensitive detector, to detect and evaluate aroma compounds from a chromatographic column eluate. There are various GC-O methods based on different principles (dilution analysis, detection frequency, and direct intensity) to obtain data on aroma-active compounds in GC-O. This chapter explains in detail the application of dilution analysis, detection frequency, and direct intensity methods from GC-O techniques in conjunction with solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE) to elucidate key odorants of wines.