Volatile Characterization of Recovery Minority Grape Varieties from Castilla-La Mancha Region (Spain)

Nowadays, the identification and characterization of grapevine cultivars resilient to climate and water stress while preserving quality traits is crucial for the wine industry. Therefore, the objective of this work was to characterize according to their aromatic potential nine white and six red minority cultivars recently recovered from Castilla-La Mancha region (Spain), subjected to two different water-deficit regimes: rainfed, with subsistence irrigation, and irrigated. For this, the varietal aromatic potential index (IPAv) and the detailed aromatic composition were analyzed via HS-SBSE-GC/MS in extracts of two different pHs. For IPAv values, red varieties did not show a clear trend with respect to irrigation. However, in white minority varieties, higher values were obtained under irrigation conditions. Thus, a clear differentiation of the minority varieties in comparison to the references was observed, primarily attributed to the content of esters and acids, in both white and red varieties. A notable contrast was observed at different pHs, indicating a greater extractability of certain compounds like linalool, under more acidic conditions. This suggests that some recovered minority cultivars could be promising for cultivation in semi-arid regions with limited water, contributing to the sustainability of the wine sector in the future.