Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Open Access

Abstract

The Influence of Different Production Processes on the Aromatic Composition of Peruvian Piscos

Juan Cacho, Liliana Moncayo, Juan Carlos Palma, Vicente Ferreira and Laura Culleré

This work evaluates, from chemical and sensory points of view, the impact of certain production process variations on the aromatic profiles of the Quebranta and Italia varieties of pisco. It studies the influence of distilling must that has been fermented completely or incompletely (green must); of carrying out distillation in a falca or in an alembic; and of varying the scale of production (industrial scale or artisan small scale). The chemical differences observed between piscos of complete fermentation and incomplete fermentation (green musts) was more marked in the Quebranta variety. These differences were also noted in the sensory evaluation, with the representative green must sample being defined as the most terpenic, and as having a greater aromatic intensity. In general, it was seen that distillation in a falca gives slightly higher levels of the majority of the compounds in both Quebranta and Italia piscos. For their part, the different scales of production appear to have a greater impact on the Quebranta variety, introducing significant differences in 16 compounds, while the Italia variety showed significant differences in only three compounds. In general, the majority of the analysed compounds showed higher levels in the industrial-scale piscos.