Fast and Reliable Multiresidue Analysis of Aromas in Wine by Means of Gas Chromatography Coupled with Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry

The paper would like to show a direct injection into GC-MS/QqQ for the determination of secondary aromas in white wine samples fermented in two different ways. The procedure has been compared with more traditional methods used in this field, i.e., headspace analysis and liquid-liquid extraction. The application of such direct injection, for the first time in the literature, allows us to analyze Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the range 0.1-100 µg mL-1, with Limits of Detection (LODs) and Limits of Quantification (LOQs) between 0.01-0.05 µg mL-1 and 0.03-0.09 µg mL-1, respectively, intraday and interday below 5.6% and 8.5%, respectively, and recoveries above 92% at two different fortification levels. The procedure has been applied to real wine samples: it evidences how the fermentation in wood (cherry) barrel yields higher VOC levels than ones in wine fermented in steel tank, causing production of different secondary aromas and different relative flavors.