OBJECTIVE QUALITY ESTIMATION INDICES FOR CHERRY BRANDIES

The compositions of aroma compounds of alcoholic beverages derived from distillates include the same basic groups of volatile compounds - alcohols, esters, acetals, aldehydes, volatile acids. However, their proportions and content vary considerably and depend on both the type of raw materials used and the processing procedure features. In order to develop objective quality estimation indices for cherry brandies 24 brandy samples produced by well-known European manufacturers were examined using gas chromatographic analysis, sensory testing method and methods of mathematical statistics that enabled us to carry out a correlation analysis of the results obtained. The sensory aroma profiles of investigated samples were created basing on the results of the study. It was found, that fresh cherry aroma with an almond shade is characteristic of high-quality cherry brandies. With canonical correlation analysis, the most significant correlations were identified. High degree of correlation between the tasting score and the concentration of 1-propanol (R = 0.722); the amount content of higher alcohols (R = 0.865); the ratio of the amount of Calcohols to the amount of C, C alcohols (R = 0.872); and the ratio of ethyl esters of caproic, caprylic and capric acids (enanthic ethers) to the amount of all esters (R = 0,934) was established. The most significant negative correlation coefficients were determined for the concentrations of methanol (-0.974), acetaldehyde (-0.930), hexanol (-0.947) and ethyl lactate (-0.963). Based on the investigations objective quality estimation indices for cherry brandies were recommended, including sensory descriptors, the limit values of methanol, acetaldehyde, propanol, ethyllactate mass concentrations, and the ratio of the alcohols to the amount of C alcohols C, C - not less than 0.51 and the ratio of enanthic ethers to esters - not less than 0.47.