Aromatic profile of grape and fruit brandies determined by GC equipped with flame ionization detector

Grape brandy represents a significant segment of traditional production, with a pronounced economic and cultural value in Macedonia. It is an alcoholic beverage obtained by fermentation and distillation of grape mash from the cultivated vine Vitis vinifera. Moreover, fruit brandies are obtained by fermentation and distillation of their representative fruit mash. The quality of the brandy depends on several factors, such as: the variety of grape or fruit, climate, soil conditions, fermentation process, distillation time and technique, as well as the maturation period.
In this study, various groups of aromatic compounds, including alcohols, esters, aldehydes, terpenes have been identified in 52 grape and 15 fruit brandies. All grape brandy samples were produced in domestic and traditional distillation conditions from various grape varieties, such as: Vranec, Temjanika, Muskat Hamburg, R’kaciteli, Smederevka, Afus Ali, Plovdina, Prokupec, Traminec, Risling and Pinot Noir. The fruit brandy samples were produces from plum, apricot, peach, red Delishes apple, Dzanka plum and Ohrid cherry. Additionally, samples of Mastika and Gin were included in the study. Analysis of aromatic compounds was performed using GC-MS after headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME). The key aromatic compounds determined included acetaldehyde, esters (ethyl acetate, propyl acetate, ethyllactate, isoamyl acetate), higher alcohols (1-propanol, 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol, 2-phenyl ethanol, hexanol, isobutanol) and methanol. Among the esters, ethyl acetate was dominant in fruit peach brandy. Regarding alcohols, 2-methyl-1-butanol was the most prevalent in the aromatic Temjanika grape brandy. High levels of methanol, as undesirable component, was observed in plum (Dzanka) brandy.

Keywords: grape brandy, fruit brandy, aroma compounds, GC-MS.

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the CEEPUS network RS-1816 (Reinforcement of research, professional, and education capacities for application in sample preparation of various origins before the corresponding analysis).