Selection of aroma compounds for the differentiation of wines obtained by fermenting musts with starter cultures of commercial yeast strains

• A rapid and easy to use platform of analysis is assayed for wine differentiation.
• Aroma compounds of wines are extracted by SBSE and analyzed using GC–MS technique.
• Profiles based on volatile aroma compounds for Aligoté wines are obtained.
• Eighteen key aroma compounds are selected to differentiate wine samples.
• An objective differentiation of wines from same must but different yeasts is obtained.

Nine wines obtained by fermenting Aligoté musts with individual starter cultures of eight Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strains and with the indigenous microbiota were compared in terms of their composition in minor volatile aroma compounds. An easy handle methodology Stir-Bar-Sorptive-Adsorption, Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry based, permits the identification of 49 aroma compounds. The rearrangement of these aroma compounds in six chemical families permits the establishment of a finger printing for each wine. Eighteen aroma compounds that exhibit a high differentiation power (p ⩽ 0.05) were selected for chemometric analysis. The Principal Component Analysis carried out with these aroma compounds reveal that the first two principal components explain 53.8% and 17.2% of the total variance, respectively, allowing the establishment of nine different groups, in accordance with the wine types obtained. These results reveal analytical differences among the wines that are not recognized by sensorial analysis.