There are four Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) descriptors of fortified wines in Andalucía (‘Condado de Huelva’, ‘Jerez-Xérès-Sherry’, ‘Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda’, and ‘Montilla-Moriles’). Within each PDO, there are recognised different categories according to their particular winemaking conditions such as the ageing process (Fino and Manzanilla, Oloroso, Amontillado and Palo Cortado). There is also a price premium dependent on the age of the wine.
This study (open access) aimed to differentiate volatile profiles of fortified wines obtained by headspace solid phase microextraction in conjunction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. From the analysis of 104 reference samples, the authors used chemometric tools to identify the marker volatile compounds most related to fortified wine types. 28 marker volatile compounds gave enough information to discriminate by ageing process (biological, oxidative, or mixed) providing useful markers for the identification of each specific type of fortified wine. Among them, some esters were strongly related to biological ageing, aldehydes and acids to oxidative ageing, and lactones to mixed ageing. These volatile molecules involved in their differentiation could explain the unique organoleptic characteristics or attributes of these PDO fortified wines.
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