Sensory and Volatile characterization of Australian White wines from cv. Verdelho produced in the Queensland Granite Belt region

Verdelho is a white-grape-vine, traditionally used in Madeira wine production, which grows well in the Granite Belt region of the Australian state of Queensland, where it usually originate dry white wines. In this work, a complete volatile characterisation of Verdelho wines from the 2012 vintage produced in the Granite Belt region was carried out. Volatile compounds were isolated by Solid Phase Extraction (SPE), and identified and quantified using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry analysis (GC-MS). At the same time, a corresponding sensory characterisation of this distinctive Australian wine style has been investigated, by subjecting the most characteristic wines to a sensory descriptive analysis. The chemical compounds that mostly contributed to the flavour of these Verdelho wines were related to fruity sweet notes (ethyl esters and acetates), grass notes (3-hexenol), floral aromas (2-phenylethanol and β-linalool) and cheesy aromas (fatty acids). The results from sensory analysis confirmed that all the Verdelho wines analysed were characterised by fruity aroma attributes, especially of “tree-fruit” and “rockmelon”, together with “herbaceous”, while some significant differences in the other sensory attributes were found between samples.