Effects of composition, storage time, geographic origin and oak type on the accumulation of some volatile oak compounds and ethylphenols in wines

The aim of this work was to study the effect of different parameters on the accumulation of volatile oak compounds and ethylphenols in red barrel-aged wines. For this, 510 wines, from four different geographic zones and aged for various times in different oak barrel types were analysed. The results of the statistical analysis showed that the compounds were in four groups, accounting for 82.99% of the variance. The enological parameters did not present correlation with any of these four groups. The wines that remained longer in oak barrels presented, in general, higher concentrations of the studied compounds. Three of the four geographic zones were similar to each other. The oak barrel type affected the value of the ratio cis/trans, but it did not affect the accumulation of any of the volatile oak compounds or ethylphenols. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.