# Establishment of the Volatile Signature of Wine-Based Aromatic Vinegars Subjected to Maceration
## 4 Conclusions  
The optimized method based on the HS-SPME/GC-MS was revealed as a suitable tool to establish the volatile signature of WBAVs obtained by maceration with fruits and a medicinal herb. A total of 103 VOCs, belonging to different chemical families, were identified. In terms of % RPA values and VOCs identified differences were observed between wine vinegar and WBAV, as well as among WBAV. In the case of WBAV, the different contribution for total volatile profile could be explained by the fruit volatile signature used to macerate the wine vinegar (control). The fruit volatile signature can be affected by climatic conditions, sun exposition and agronomic practices. Higher alcohols, ethyl esters and fatty acids were the predominant chemical families found in all investigated vinegar samples. On the other hand, in qualitative terms, carbonyl compounds were not detected in pennyroyal vinegar, whereas ethyl 3-ethoxypropanoate, ethyl 3-hexenoate, methyl octanoate, ethyl 2-hydroxyisovalerate, isopentyl hexanoate, butyl octanoate, linalool oxide isomer, menthone, limonene oxide, dihydroracvenol, bornyl acetate, linalyl acetate, menthol and octanal were only detected in some WBAVs. From a sensorial point of view, the ethyl esters and terpenids only detected in some WBAV showed a positive contribution to aroma with fruity, sweet, green, fresh, anise and berry notes to WBAV aroma, since they have low odor threshold (in order of \(\mu\)g/L). However, a future work will be done related to sensorial analysis of WBAV using HS-SPME/GC-O in order to define its odor descriptors and provide their distinct patterns based on their volatile signature depending on the raw material used in the maceration process. As far as we known, no studies are available related to sensorial analysis of WBAV and therefore it will be subject of a future publication.  
The HS-SPME/GC-MS data combined with PCA and HCA provided a powerful tool to differentiate vinegar from WBAV based on volatile signature. This knowledge represents a suitable tool to guarantee the authenticity and genuineness of wine as well wine-based aromatic vinegars, to promote the production of vinegars with enhanced levels of volatile compounds. As far as we know, 34 VOCs were identified for the first time in vinegars.  
Supplementary materials are available online.  
**Acknowledgments:** The authors acknowledge the FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia through the pos-Doc grant (SFRH/BPD/97387/2013), PhD grant (SFRH/BD/97039/2013), MS Portuguese Networks (REDE/1508/RNEM/2010) and CQM grant, PEst-UID/QUI/00674/2013 (CQM is a FCT--National Research Unit). Funding through the project M1420-01-0145-FEDER-00005--Centro de Quimica da Madeira-CQM+(Madeira 14-20), is also acknowledged.  
**Author Contributions:** [PERSON] performed the design of experiments, optimization experimental parameters, and data analysis; [PERSON] and [PERSON] performed the support to the experiments, GC-MS and data analysis. [PERSON] performed the conception of study, and manuscript preparation and editing.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.