The effect of oak matrix (medium toast barrel, medium toast shavings, non-toast chips, light toast chips, medium toast chips, and heavy toast chips) on the volatiles and antioxidant activity in Goji wine, a novel functional but aroma lackluster wine, were investigated. Results showed that the oak matrix used for Goji wine during aging improved its volatile profile and enhanced its antioxidant activity, depending on the toast degree and particularly the type of oak matrix. With regard to the volatiles of Goji wine, the oak shavings sample was the most efficient for the esters formation and the release of oak-related compounds. The analysis of odour activity values of volatiles in Goji wine also showed that the flavour of woody, vanilla, and clove was the highest in the oak shavings sample, which were related to the compounds such as cis- and trans-whisky lactone, vanillin, eugenol, isoeugenol, and 4-vinylguaiacol. According to the sensory analysis, the oak shavings samples had the highest score in olfactory and gustative. In addition, results of the effect of oak matrix on antioxidant activity of Goji wine indicated that Goji wine treated with oak shavings exhibited the highest antioxidant activity thanks to the high content of phenols (5.47 g/L GAE) and flavonoids (0.36 g/L).
This paper clarifies the contribution of lactones and volatile phenols to the aroma of nongrape wine. A target method for the simultaneous determination of these two kinds of volatiles in nongrape wines was developed using headspace-solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with high-resolution gas chromatography-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (GC-Orbitrap-MS). A high-resolution mass spectrometry database including 12 lactones and 11 volatile phenols was established for qualitative accuracy. Different matrix-matched calibration standards should be prepared for specific samples due to the matrix effects. The method was successfully validated and applied in three nongrape wines. Hawthorn wine contained more lactones (δ/γ-hexalactone, δ/γ-nonalactone, δ/γ-decalactone, γ-undecalactone, δ/γ-dodecalactone, C10 massoia lactone, and whiskey lactone), while blueberry wine contained more volatile phenols (especially 4-vinylguaiacol and 4-ethylguiaiacol). Goji berry wines contained certain concentrations of δ-nonalactone, γ-nonalactone, δ-hexalactone, and 3-ethyl phenol. This study demonstrated that HS-SPME-GC-Orbitrap-MS can be applied for the accurate quantification of trace aroma compounds such as lactones and volatile phenols in fruit wines.