Effect of mixed moulds starters on volatile flavor compounds in rice wine

In the present study, rice wine was produced by mixed moulds starters fermentation. The influence of mixed moulds starters on enological parameters, free amino acids (FAAs), flavor compounds, and sensory characteristics of rice wine were respectively investigated. Results indicated that the contents of ethanol, amino acid nitrogen, umami and sweet FAAs in rice wine obtained from rice fermentation using starter of simultaneous inoculation of R. chinonsis R01, A. niger A20, M. pusillus M05 and S. cerevisiae S10 (RAM-S) were higher than that of Control one using wheat Qu. In addition, flavor compound data revealed that the aroma of rice wine using different starters mainly differed in the amounts of alcohols and esters. FAAs, flavor compounds, sensory evaluation and partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis demonstrated RAM-S wine had the best sensory characteristics with higher contents of esters, nitrogen-containing, umami and sweet FAAs, and lower of bitter FAAs. These findings demonstrated that the starter RAM-S is promising to produce rice wine with high quality standards both in flavor and fermentation performance.