Sensory and chemical characterizations of aroma during the loquat wine fermentation

The aroma composition is one of the most important indicators when measuring the quality of fruit wines. This paper presents the changes in aroma components in loquat wine during the initial, main and post-fermentation stages. The main free aroma component during loquat wine fermentation was phenethyl alcohol. The relative contents of phenylethanol, aldehydes and esters increased during the main fermentation. The relative content of esters increased significantly during post-fermentation. The main bonded aroma components were 2-methoxyphenol. The secondary bonded aroma components were 2,6,11,15-tetramethylhexadecane and 2,6,10-trimethyltetradecane in loquat wine. Amino acids are the precursor substances for the generation of the major flavours. The main consumption were aspartate, lysine, arginine, serine, cysteine and glutamate in the fermentation process. The branched-chain aliphatic alcohols, aldehydes and esters in the aroma composition of loquat wine may be derived from amino acid metabolism. This study helps in the understanding of the change rules and loss mechanism of aroma substances in loquat wine.