Aroma profile of Garnacha Tintorera-based sweet wines by chromatographic and sensorial analyses

► Aroma fingerprint by GC–MS and sensorial analysis of odours and tastes. ► Sotolon and acetoin resulted from Maillard reactions during grape drying. ► Odorant series affected by drying of the grapes were floral, caramelized and vegetal-wood. ► Sweetness, dried fruit and caramel were the main descriptors for sweet wines. ► Bitterness, astringency and geranium (for base wines). The aroma profiles obtained of three Garnacha Tintorera-based wines were studied: a base wine, a naturally sweet wine, and a mixture of naturally sweet wine with other sweet wine obtained by fortification with spirits. The aroma fingerprint was traced by GC–MS analysis of volatile compounds and by sensorial analysis of odours and tastes. Within the volatiles compounds, sotolon (73μg/L) and acetoin (122μg/L) were the two main compounds found in naturally sweet wine. With regards to the odorant series, those most dominant for Garnacha Tintorera base wine were floral, fruity and spicy. Instead, the most marked odorant series affected by off-vine drying of the grapes were floral, caramelized and vegetal-wood. Finally, odorant series affected by the switch-off of alcoholic fermentation with ethanol 96% (v/v) fit for human consumption followed by oak barrel aging were caramelized and vegetal-wood. A partial least square test (PLS-2) was used to detect correlations between sets of sensory data (those obtained with mouth and nose) with the ultimate aim of improving our current understanding of the flavour of Garnacha Tintorera red wines, both base and sweet. Based on the sensory dataset analysis, the descriptors with the highest weight for separating base and sweet wines from Garnacha Tintorera were sweetness, dried fruit and caramel (for sweet wines) vs. bitterness, astringency and geranium (for base wines).