Characterization of key aroma compounds in Huangjiu from northern China by sensory-directed flavor analysis

Abstract Huangjiu (yellow rice wine) from Shanxi province, with a dominant Zao-aroma (fermented grain aroma), is particularly popular in northern China. The key aroma compounds in Huangjiu from Shanxi province were characterized by sensory-directed flavor analysis. A total of 106 compounds separated with solvent-assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE) distillation were identified by gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O) coupled with aroma extract dilution analysis (AEDA) and odor specific magnitude estimation (Osme). Forty-seven of them were further quantitated and 21 odorants had odor activity values (OAVs) ≥ 1. The aroma profiles of three recombination models had >95.84% similarities to their corresponding samples. And then, the omission/addition tests further confirmed that β-phenylethanol, 3-methylbutanoic acid, ethyl lactate, sotolon, 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, vanillin, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl 3-phenylpropionate, 3-methylbutanal, and methional were the key odorants for Huangjiu from Shanxi province. Meanwhile, it was firstly confirmed that ethyl cinnamate and ethyl 3-phenylpropionate played the key roles in the overall aroma of Huangjiu.