A comparative study of the volatile profile of wine vinegars with protected designation of origin by headspace stir bar sorptive extraction.

The characteristic volatile profile of the Spanish Vinagre de Jerez (VJ), Vinagre de Condado de Huelva (VC) and Vinagre de Montilla-Moriles (VMM) protected designation of origin (PDO) wine vinegars has been studied and compared for the first time by headspace stir bar sorptive extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HSSE-GC-MS). The possible markers of each category and PDO were assessed. Acetates were the majority group in all vinegars, while ketones, C13-norisoprenoids and volatile phenols showed significant differences between the three PDOs. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), heatmap and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were performed. According to these results, 1-heptanol, methyl nonanoate, 2-methylbutanoic acid, 2,2,6-trimethyl-cyclohexanone, trans-2-decenal, eucalyptol and α-terpineol, were the most significant compounds for differentiating of VC, diacetyl and acetoin, ethyl 3-ethoxypropanoate, 2- and 3-heptanone, 2-methyl-1-hexadecanol, 1-octen-3-ol, p-Cresol and camphene for VMM; and β-damascenone, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, 3-heptanol, trans-2-hexen-1-ol and trans-2-hexen-1-yl acetate for VJ. Classification results showed that 100% of PDO samples were correctly classified, reaffirming the utility of the volatile profiles for classifying and authenticating wine vinegar PDOs.