Monitorization of Varietal Aroma Composition Dynamics during Ripening in Intact Vitis vinifera L. Tempranillo Blanco...

The measurement of aromatic maturity during grape ripening provides very important information for determining the harvest date, particularly in white cultivars. However, there are currently no tools that allow this measurement to be carried out in a noninvasive and rapid way. For this reason, in the present work, we have studied the use of hyperspectral imaging (HSI)) to estimate the aromatic composition of Vitis vinifera L. Tempranillo Blanco berries during ripening. A total of 236 spectra in the VIS+short wave near-infrared (VIS+SW-NIR) range (400-1000 nm) of intact berries were acquired contactless under laboratory conditions. As gold standard values, a total of 20 volatile compounds were quantified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and the concentration of total soluble solids (TSS) was measured by refractometry. Calibration, cross-validation, and prediction models were built using partial least squares (PLS). Values of R_CV² ≥ 0.70 were obtained for α-terpineol, p-cymene, β-damascenone, β-ionone, benzaldehyde, benzyl alcohol, hexanal, citral, linalool, 2-phenylethanol, octanoic acid, nonanoic acid, 2-hexenal, 2-hexen-1-ol, (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, total C₁₃ norisoprenoids, total C6 compounds, total positive compounds (i.e., the sum of all families except C6 compounds), total benzenoids, and total soluble solids (TSS). Therefore, it can be affirmed that HSI in the VIS + SW-NIR range could be a good tool to estimate the aromatic composition of Tempranillo Blanco grape berries in a contactless, fast, and nondestructive way.