Comparative study on key odorants of Jiujiang Fenggang Huangjiu and their succession regularities during aging using sensory-directed flavor analysis

Huangjiu was a Chinese national alcohol with a unique flavor. The key odorants in Jiujiang Fenggang Huangjiu (JJFG) and their succession regularities during aging were systematically researched by a sensomics analysis approach. The volatiles of JJFG were isolated by solvent-assisted flavor evaporation, 77 odorants were identified using gas chromatography–olfactometry-mass spectrometry combined with odor-specific magnitude estimation. Three aroma recombinants, prepared using odorants with odor activity values ≥ 1, all showed good similarities with their corresponding samples (92.1%∼97.5%). After omission/addition tests, 7 new key aroma compounds were found in JJFG, including 1-octen-3-one, 1-pentanol, guaiacol, ethyl 2-hydroxy-4-methylpentanoate, 2-phenethyl acetate, ethyl butanoate, and (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal. Using orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis, 20 compounds with VIP ≥ 1 were found to be important indicators during aging of JJFG. Among them, sotolon, 3-methylsulfanylpropanal, et al. increased with aging. The improved solid-phase extraction can effectively quantify sotolon, with a recovery rate of 80.96%∼91.75%.