Volatile components of Pelaverga red wines from Piedmont (Italy)

Background

The characterization of a typical red wine from Piedmont (north-west Italy), Pelaverga, was performed by means of headspace solid phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Two different kinds of Pelaverga are known, hystorical and Verduno, which differ with the area of production. The main volatile compounds of the wine were identified and semi-quantified. Principal components analysis (PCA) was performed to identify possible clusters among the different samples analyzed.

Results

Forty-eight volatile compounds were unambiguously identified in the wines sampled. The two types of Pelaverga analyzed displayed a very similar volatile profile. The most abundant volatile compounds were two esters, ethyl octanoate and diethyl succinate, and two alcohols, isoamyl alcohol and ethyl phenyl alcohol. Few varietal compounds were detected, probably due to their low concentration; among these, we were not able to detect rotundone, which is reported to impart characteristic spicy notes to this kind of wine. Application of PCA did not allow to differentiate between the two types of Pelaverga on the basis of their volatile profile.

Conclusion

The present work is, to the best of our knowledge, the first complete report about the volatile profile of Pelaverga wines and represents the first step of a research project aiming at characterizing food products from Piedmont on the basis of chemical parameters. Differentiation between the two types of Pelaverga will likely require the determination of different chemical parameters in conjunction with volatile compounds.