Impact of perceptive interactions on red wine fruity aroma.

A preparative HPLC method was applied to aromatic red wine extracts. Twenty-five fractions with various flavors were thus obtained, and several aromatic reconstitutions were produced by mixing some of these fractions. Discriminative tests revealed that the omission of some fractions from the mixture of fruity fractions or the addition of others affected the overall expression of fruity aroma. Sensory profile analyses identified significant differences among aromatic reconstitutions in terms of intensity of black-berry, as well as fresh-, and jammy-fruit descriptors. A fraction with a very low fruity note (fraction 17) had an additive effect on the fresh fruity aroma, while fractions with caramel and lactic notes (fractions 3-5) had a masking effect on this aroma and an additive effect on the jammy-fruit aroma. Further analysis revealed that ethyl 2-hydroxy-4-methylpentanoate was eluted in fraction 17, while diacetyl, acetoin, acetic acid, and γ-butyrolactone were eluted in fractions 3-5. Omissions tests established that ethyl 2-hydroxy-4-methylpentanoate was responsible for enhancing black-berry and fresh-fruit aroma and that a combination of diacetyl, acetoin, acetic acid, and γ-butyrolactone, at levels between 2 and 40% of their perception thresholds, had the same hypoadditive effect on the overall and fresh fruity aroma as fractions 3-5.