Simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE) and closed-loop stripping analysis (CLSA) show great capacity for organic compound extraction. Here we used these techniques to obtain and characterize a wide range of volatile compounds from aged cava sparkling wine. We also explored the potential application of head space-solid phase micro extraction (HS-SPME) to determine the distinctive volatile compounds of aged cava as this technique is a common extraction method in quality flavour control. For SDE, 50 mL of cava were extracted with pentane/dichloromethane during 4 h in a Likens–Nickerson (LN) extraction apparatus; while for CLSA, 25 mL of cava were stirred during 1 h into a CLSA apparatus with an adsorbent trap of granulated activated carbon. HS-SPME was performed at 35ºC using 2 ml of sample for 30 min. The 20-mm SPME fibber was coated with a 50/30-lm layer of divinylbenzene–carboxen–polydimethylsiloxane (DVB–CAR–PDMS). All the extraction methods were followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis. SDE and CLSA allowed the identification of 84 volatile compounds. Almost 40% of the volatiles from these two techniques were obtained by HS-SPME. Moreover, here we provide the first description of several tentatively identified compounds such as lilial, octanal, 2-octanone, isopropyl disulfide, methylthiophen-3-one, a-amyl-cinnamaldehyde, ethyl 2-furancarboxylate, 2-acetylfuran, and 5-methylfurfural in cava.

We are grateful to Segura Viudas S.A., Castellblanch S.A. and Freixenet S.A. wineries for providing samples. This study was made possible thanks to financial assistance from the Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT) (Spain) AGL2005-03451, from Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain), Project 2005SGR-00156 and through a Grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya to the PhD student J. Bosch-Fusté.

8 pages, 1 figure.

Peer reviewed