Analysis Of Pinot Noir Wines By HS-SPME GC/Q-TOF: Correlating Geographical Origin With Volatile Aroma Profiles

The volatile profile of a wine is dependent on many variables including grape cultivar, fermentation conditions, exposure to oak, wine age, and many others. While the influence of grape growing conditions on the volatile profiles of wine have been studied, few studies relating wine regions to characteristic volatile profiles have been done. One difficulty is controlling other factors such as the grape genotype and fermentation conditions, among others. In order to control for these variables, this study compared the volatile profile of wines made from an identical genetic clone of Pinot Noir grapes grown in vineyard sites in California (13) and in Oregon (2). Grapes were hand-harvested and immediately transported to UC Davis where they were fermented (in triplicate) under the same enological conditions. Samples of each fermentation (45 total) were analyzed in triplicate by headspace solid phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (HS-SPME GC/Q-TOF) for separation and detection. An accurate mass personal compound database/library (PCDL) was created containing approximately 60 volatile compounds which have previously been shown to have sensory impacts in wine. MassHunter Profinder software was used to identify compounds (searching against the PCDL), integrate peaks, and align the data. Subsequently, data was imported into Mass Profiler Professional for statistical analysis.

While these samples are not typical botanicals, the analytical methodology could easily be adapted to differentiate botanicals based on the species, country of origin or growing conditions.