Simple quantitative determination of potent thiols at ultratrace levels in wine by derivatization and high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) analysis.

Volatile sulfur compounds contribute characteristic aromas to foods and beverages and are widely studied, because of their impact on sensory properties. Certain thiols are particularly important to the aromas of roasted coffee, cooked meat, passion fruit, grapefruit, and guava. These same thiols enhance the aroma profiles of different wine styles, imparting pleasant aromas reminiscent of citrus and tropical fruits (due to 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol, 3-mercaptohexyl acetate, 4-mercapto-4-methylpentan-2-one), roasted coffee (2-furfurylthiol), and struck flint (benzyl mercaptan), at nanogram-per-liter levels. In contrast to the usual gas chromatography (GC) approaches, a simple and unique high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method was developed for routine analysis of five wine thiols, using 4,4'-dithiodipyridine (DTDP) as a derivatizing agent and polydeuterated internal standards for maximum accuracy and precision. DTDP reacted rapidly with thiols at wine pH and provided stable derivatives, which were enriched by solid-phase extraction (SPE) prior to analysis by HPLC-MS/MS. All steps were optimized and the method was validated in different wine matrices, with method performance being comparable to a well-optimized but more cumbersome gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. A range of commercial wines was analyzed with the new method, revealing the distribution of the five thiols in white, red, rosé, and sparkling wine styles.