Application of multivariate statistical analyses to the study of factors affecting white wine volatile composition

The influence of different storage conditions on the volatile composition of young white wine was evaluated during 1 year of storage. The wine was bottled and stored under different conditions of temperature, position and illumination. During storage, a significant increase in total content esters (mainly due to the increase in ethyl butyrate, ethyl acetate and diethyl succinate) and total content acids was detected. Also total content alcohols and carbonyl compounds decreased during storage. Storage time, temperature and illumination have a significant effect on esters content, whereas carbonyl compounds are affected by temperature, and alcohols content is affected by illumination. Stepwise linear discriminant analysis was applied to the experimental data. The results showed that the samples were well classified as a function of storage temperature. On the other hand, a certain trend was observed when the wine samples were classified according to storage time. The samples corresponding to two and four months of storage were well differentiated from the rest