Targeted and untargeted analytical approaches to distinguish barrel-aged from wines aged with alternative woods

Abstract

The widespread use of alternative wood products (e.g., chips, staves, and cubes) as oenological aging practices poses new significant challenges for quality control, traceability, and authenticity assessment, with relevance to regulatory oversight. Gas chromatography-mass detection (GC–MS) and near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) are powerful techniques for targeted and untargeted characterization of complex matrices such as wine. When combined with multivariate statistical analyses (PCA, DFA, PLS-DA), they enable quality control and discrimination of wine aging methods, helping to protect wine quality, typicity, and consumer interests. Model solutions and experimental wines were appropriately treated with alternative wood products, while a significant number of commercial wines stored in barrels (barriques, tonneaux) were collected. Wood-derived aroma compounds (xylovolatiles) were accurately described by GC–MS analysis. NIR spectroscopy coupled with chemometric models was applied too, for a rapid, non-destructive, and low-cost monitoring of wine composition. Finally, multivariate statistical methods used on both spectroscopic and spectrometric data allowed wine classification and description. GC–MS analysis revealed clear differences as regards xylovolatile profiles of wines and a clear separation by PCA among wines aged with different wood formats. Barrel-aged wines were clearly separated from those treated with alternative woods. More specifically, wines with chips clustered together and were associated with vanillin, acetophenone, acetovanillone, and trans-whiskey lactone; wines with staves were correlated with furanic compounds and wines with cubes with methyl-2-furoate and several phenolic compounds, including guaiacol and syringol. By contrast, traditionally aged wines showed a strong correlation with ethylphenols, sotolon, cis-whisky lactone, and cyclotene. Multivariate analysis on NIR spectra showed no matrix effect, but clearly distinguished wines aged with alternative formats from barrel-aged ones while no separation was observed between barrel- and barrique-aged wines. The discrimination of specific wood aging practices requires the integration of targeted analytical techniques, that provide detailed chemical information, and complementary NIR spectroscopy coupled with supervised chemometric models aiming at the rapid classification of wines and the development of predictive models to safeguard product quality, origin, and authenticity.

References

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