Accelerated Aging against Conventional Storage: Effects on the Volatile Composition of Chardonnay White Wines

The effects of time (storage period) and temperature (accelerated aging) on Chardonnay white wines have been evaluated. Attention was focused on a large extent of individual volatile compounds, scarcely previously reported in that kind of wines. On the one hand, several volatile compounds (mainly esters, benzenic compounds, C-13-norisoprenoids, acids, and terpenes) showed the same behavior when temperature and time were applied separately. Therefore, the effect of 1 y of storage could be predicted by temperature application during short time, just analyzing those volatile compounds. Moreover, the formation of some volatile compounds (such as dioxanes, dioxolanes, and 1,2-dihydro-1,1,6-trimethylnaphtalene (TDN)) and the disappearance of some alcohols, terpenes, and furanic compounds occurred in both conventional stored and accelerated-aged wines. On the other hand, wines submitted to high temperature differed from 1-y stored wines on several volatile compounds, such as beta-damascenone, C-6-alcohols, dioxolanes, gamma-butyrolactone, and TDN. Therefore, it is possible to assert that the analysis of these compounds could allow checking the possible inadequate handling by employing an excessive temperature.