# Madeira Wine Volatile Profile. A Platform to Establish Madeira Wine Aroma Descriptors
## 4 Conclusions  
This study represents the first detailed research about the Madeira wines volatile profiling and its association with odor descriptors. An in-depth relation among the varietal, fermentative and aging aroma compounds and their odor descriptors with the Madeira wine sensory analysis (described by a trained panelist) was established. The Madeira wine aroma notes, the VOCs and their aroma descriptors, showed the data complexity and the difficulty to get information. From the aroma system, it can be verified that grape variety is an important parameter that influences the sensorial properties of young Madeira wines, whereas the old wines are highly influenced by the aging process.  
From a sensorial point of view, during the aging process the wine lost its freshness and fruitiness odors, and other descriptors arise such as caramel, dried fruit, spice, toast and wood, that suggests the formation of VOCs by Maillard reaction (e.g., forian compounds), and diffusion from the oak to wines (e.g., lactones, volatile phenols). In addition, young Madeira wines obtained from Malvasia and Bual grape varieties are more complex than those obtained from Tinta Negra, Sercial, and Verdelho. This trend is not observed for the old Madeira wines since, independently of the grape variety used, their aroma notes are balanced which means that aging process has a higher impact on aroma rather than grape variety.  
It is important to point out that a detailed database about volatile composition of Madeira wine and the correspondent aroma descriptors was built, which may be useful to improve information about the specific aroma of Madeira wine and will represent a powerful tool to help on winemaker decisions.  
**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online, Table S1: Relative concentration (ug/L) and relative standard deviation (%RSD) of VOCs identified by HS-SPME/GC-qMS in dry (Sercial and Tinta Negra) and medium dry (Verdelho and Tinta Negra) Madeira wines, Table S2: Relative concentration (ug/L) and relative standard deviation (RSD) of VOCs identified by HS-SPME/GC-qMS in sweet (Malvasia and Tinta Negra) and medium sweet (Bual and Tinta Negra) Madeira wines.  
**Author Contributions:** [PERSON] performed the design of experiments, GC-MS, data analysis data analysis and manuscript preparation; [PERSON] performed the support to the experiments, GC-MS and data analysis. [PERSON] performed the manuscript preparation and editing.  
**Funding:** This research was also funded by FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (project PEst-OE/QUI/UI0674/2013, CQM, Portuguese Government funds), and Associacao Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigacao Tecnologia e Inovacao (ARDITI) through the project M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000005--Centro de Quimica da Madeira--CQM\({}^{+}\) (Madeira 14-20). The authors also acknowledge for PhD grant (SFRH/BD/97039/2013) to [PERSON]  
**Acknowledgments:** The authors acknowledge H.M. Borges Company for kindly providing the samples, and the information related to sensory properties of Madeira wines.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.