Layton Ashmore and Thomas Collins*
*Washington State University, WSU Wine Science Center, University Dr., Richland, WA 99354 (tom.collins@wsu.edu)

While many styles of distilled spirits follow typical recipes due to tradition or regulation, gins are unique in the variety of flavoring adjuncts used to impart the distinct aroma attributes with which they are commonly associated. While the piney notes imparted by juniper berry additions are most widely associated with typical London dry gin character, other botanical adjuncts are responsible for characters ranging from “citrus” to “herbal” to “floral,” allowing a varied assortment of styles. By examining the volatile fingerprint of any given gin, the gin’s primary aroma character may be evaluated without knowledge of specific additions made by the distiller. For this purpose, an optimized method using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was developed for volatile fingerprinting of un-aged distilled spirits. In a set of 25 commercial gins, 46 common volatile aroma compounds were uniquely identified, and through use of internal standards and external calibration, 22 of these compounds were individually quantified. By correlating these fingerprints with sensory data, a more clear understanding of the roles these compounds play in gin aroma can be deduced. Future studies involving cryotrap GC-O/MS can help further elucidate the role of these compounds and how their individual and combined proportions influence gin aroma profiles.

Funding Support: Washington State University Start-up funding