SilvaFerreiraTOTAL.doc Printed 9/27/10 1 RESERVE THIS SPACE RESERVE THIS SPACE Sensorial Impact of Sotolon as the “Perceived Age ” of Aged Port Wine

During the barrel ageing of Port wine, a number of specific compounds accumulate progressively. One such compound is Sotolon, which imparts a typical aroma which thus increases in intensity with age. To correlate Sotolon levels with sensorial determined “age perception”, a simple ranking test was applied to 3 sets of wines: a 4 y. o., a 10 years old and a 40:60 blend of these. Increasing quantities of Sotolon were added and wines supplemented with this substance were consistently ranked as older. The Sotolon formation was studied as a function of, temperature, pH, SO2 and dissolved O2. The synergic effect of temperature and high regimes of O2 had the highest impact on furanone concentration. A 1st order kinetic model was applied to describe both saturated and non-supplemented regimes of O2 on Sotolon formation. Arrhenius equation described well the temperature dependence of the reaction rate constants. The presence of Sotolon is greatly dependent on O2 regimes during aging, have a major impac