The maturation of wine brandies in wooden barrels cause many sensory and
physicochemical changes in these alcoholic beverages, namely its flavour modification.
Previous work (Caldeira et al. 2008) pointed out the most potent odourant compounds of
the wine aged brandies. Some of these compounds proceed from the distillate and others
are extracted from the wood.
In this study it was quantified, some odourless compounds, such as methanol and higher
alcohols and several odorant compounds in brandies aged in presence of two types of
wood fragments (staves and tablets), from two different kinds of woods (Limousin oak
wood and Portuguese chestnut wood), and compared with those found in the same with
brandy aged in wooden barrels. A taster panel have also profiled these brandies and
evaluated their overall quality.
The methanol and higher alcohols were quantified by GC-FID equipped with a fused silica
capillary column of polyethylene glycol according to the official method [NP 3263, 1990].
The odorant compounds were quantified by GC-FID and identified by GC-MS.
The results showed that the ageing system is the most discriminant factor, having a
significant effect on the level of several odourant compounds. The wood botanical species
affected few odourant compounds. The importance of odorant compounds was also
demonstrated by the high linear correlations between their contents and the intensity of
several sensory attributes.
The results show the possibility of using the chromatographic results as a tool to
discriminate brandies produced with different ageing technologies
