Applied Sciences (Aug 2022)

Characterisation of Refined Marc Distillates with Alternative Oak Products Using Different Analytical Approaches

  • Maurizio Petrozziello,
  • Laura Rosso,
  • Chiara Portesi,
  • Andriani Asproudi,
  • Federica Bonello,
  • Tiziana Nardi,
  • Andrea Mario Rossi,
  • Consolato Schiavone,
  • Stefano Scuppa,
  • Simone Cantamessa,
  • Matteo Pollon,
  • Pier Mario Chiarabaglio

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/app12178444
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 17
p. 8444

Abstract

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The use of oak barrel alternatives, including oak chips, oak staves and oak powder, is quite common in the production of spirits obtained from the distillation of vegetal fermented products such as grape pomace. This work explored the use of unconventional wood formats such as peeled and sliced wood. The use of poplar wood was also evaluated to verify its technological uses to produce aged spirits. To this aim, GC-MS analyses were carried out to obtain an aromatic characterisation of experimental distillates treated with these products. Moreover, the same spirits were studied for classification purposes using NMR, NIR and e-nose. A significant change in the original composition of grape pomace distillate due to sorption phenomena was observed; the intensity of this effect was greater for poplar wood. The release of aroma compounds from wood depended both on the toasting level and wood assortment. Higher levels of xylovolatiles, namely, whisky lactone, were measured in samples aged using sliced woods. Both the NIR and NMR analyses highlighted similarities among samples refined with oak tablets, differentiating them from the other wood types. Finally, E-nose seemed to be a promising alternative to spectroscopic methods both for the simplicity of sample preparation and method portability.

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