Contribution to characterisation of young Cognac aroma

Abstract

This work relates our first result about the aroma description of new distilled Cognac spirits (without the ageing step in oak barrels) in terms of matching the sensory assessment, gas chromatography (GC) chemical analysis and GC-olfactometry. The wines were produced from vines growing in the Cognac allowed area (machine harvested grapes) and the double distillation « charentaise » in pot stills. The cellar masters of major Cognac companies selected ten spirits samples. The sensory panel proceeds to the overall aroma analysis in order to find the relevant odors descriptors. Then four spirits samples were selected on their remarkable overall aroma and were describe using the « top ten » descriptors. Afterwards GC and GC – olfactometry were use to estimate compound’s contribution to perceived aroma of those spirits. So we have trained, selected and evaluated panel members for olfactometry and we found some links between significant odors descriptors from either sensory analysis or olfactometry.