CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Torrontés Riojano is a signature Argentina?s white-wine grape varietal. The moderate acidity and floral aromas of this varietal, reminiscent of Muscat and Gewürtztraminer varietals, make Torrontés Riojano a valuable resource to prepare sparkling wine. We studied in this work the organoleptic characteristics of Torrontés Riojano sparkling wine prepared using bottle second fermentation and industrial yeast strain EC1118. The resulting sparkling wine, following an aging period of twelve-months, was subjected to comprehensive chemical, solid phase extraction and gas chromatography?mass spectrometry analyses for identification and quantification of relevant oenological metabolites. Volatile compounds were quantified after adsorption and separate elution with dichloromethane from an Isolute ENV+ cartridge (Boido et al., 2003). Compounds were identified by comparison of their linear retention indices (LRI) in the mass spectra with those from pure standards or reported in the literature (Dellacassa et al., 2017). In addition, a panel of fourteen expert assessors defined the sensory aroma properties on two randomly selected sparkling wines bottles. Panelists rated secondary and tertiary tier terms using a 10-point intensity scale (Gámbaro et al., 2001). Our results show that strain EC1118 was capable of completing secondary fermentation of a Torrontés Riojano base wine, resulting in non-defective products that preserves the distinctive aromatic profile recognized in Torrontés Riojano wines (i.e. fresh fruit and floral aromas). This result suggests that most of the final organoleptic properties of Torrontés Riojano sparkling wines are dependent on the organoleptic properties of the base wine more than the yeast strain used for second fermentation. This work represents the first analysis of the chemical and sensory characteristics of the Torrontés Riojano sparkling wine.