Aroma characteristics of traditional Huangjiu produced around Winter Solstice revealed by sensory evaluation, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry

Abstract Traditional Huangjiu (a kind of traditional Chinese rice wine) produced around Winter Solstice has higher quality and a more harmonious aroma than those produced during other periods. To determine the specific differences in aroma characteristics, sensory evaluation, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry (GC–IMS) were used to analyze the volatile profiles of the traditional Huangjiu samples produced under different ambient temperature conditions. The sensory evaluation results showed that the aroma attributes of wheat, sweet, ester, alcoholic and sauce were stronger for the samples fermented near Winter Solstice than those for the other samples. GC–MS combined with heatmap analysis showed that with the decrease in average ambient temperature, the contents of esters such as diethyl succinate and ethyl butanoate gradually increased, and the contents of alcohols such as phenylethyl alcohol, 2-methylpropanol and 3-methylbutanol gradually decreased. Some key aroma compounds, such as ethyl butyrate (OAV: 97–151), nonanal (OAV: 189–200), ethyl octanoate (OAV: 859–1134) and ethyl phenylacetate (OAV: 307–353), were more abundant in the samples fermented near Winter Solstice than the other samples. The visualization of GC–IMS suggested that isoamyl acetate, 2-methylpropyl acetate, ethyl 3-methylbutyrate, and ethyl 2-methylbutanoate were enriched near Winter Solstice. Together, the results suggested that the traditional Huangjiu produced around Winter Solstice contained more flavor volatiles and had better aroma quality than those produced during other periods.