Chemical and sensory characterization of plum spirits obtained from cultivar Čačanska Rodna and its parent cultivars

Abstract

During the two-year research, a comparative analysis of the contents of 24 major volatile compounds and sensory characteristics of the plum spirits produced by spontaneous alcoholic fermentation of the plum mashes with or without stones from cultivar Čačanska Rodna and its parent cultivars – Stanley and Požegača were carried out. The plum spirits obtained from Čačanska Rodna cultivar contain lower amounts of methanol, 1-hexanol, ethyl acetate and acetaldehyde and higher amounts of 3-methyl-1-butanol and 2-phenylethanol than the spirits from its parent cultivars. Contents of 1-propanol, 1-butanol and hexanoic acid in the spirits obtained from Čačanska Rodna cultivar were lower than the contents in the spirits from Požegača and higher than those in the spirits obtained from Stanley. The sensory quality of plum spirits, in addition to the cultivar, has been significantly influenced by the presence of stones in the mash during processing of plums into spirits. In processing plums with stones, the best-graded plum spirit was from Požegača (17.88), whereas in processing without stones, the best was Čačanska Rodna spirit (17.78). The spirits obtained from Stanley cultivar had the lowest sensory grades regardless of the processing method.

Keywords

• plum cultivars
• destoning
• spontaneous fermentation
• spirits
• volatile compounds
• sensory characteristics