Characterization of the aromatic profile of Ruché wine from Piedmont (Italy) with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and unsupervised machine learning techniques.

Background: The volatile composition of Ruché, a red wine produced from a native grape in Piedmont (Italy), was investigated using headspace-solid phase microextraction (SPME) coupled to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The main volatile compounds of the wine were identified and quantified. Chemometric techniques were applied to identify features and possible clusters among the different samples.

Results: Forty volatile compounds were unambiguously identified in the 36 wine samples from different producers. The aroma profile was mainly composed of different alcohols and esters but also featured appreciable concentrations of terpenes, aldehydes, and octanoic acid. 2-Methyl benzaldehyde was identified for the first time. A high concentration of isoamyl alcohol significantly contributed to the aroma complexity. Differences between producers are highlighted.

Conclusion: The present work is the first report about the volatile profile of Ruché wines investigated by chemometric methods with quantitative results. Multivariate exploratory approaches revealed minor but distinct differences among the studied wines, likely attributable to variations in winemaking procedures. This study could be developed in future by investigating possible differences between wines according to different production vintages. © 2024 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.