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. 2021 Jan 31;10(2):288.
doi: 10.3390/foods10020288.

Comparative Evaluation of Brandy de Jerez Aged in American Oak Barrels with Different Times of Use

Manuel J Valcárcel-Muñoz  1 , María Guerrero-Chanivet  1   2 , M Valme García-Moreno  2 , M Carmen Rodríguez-Dodero  2 , Dominico A Guillén-Sánchez  2
Affiliations

Comparative Evaluation of Brandy de Jerez Aged in American Oak Barrels with Different Times of Use

Manuel J Valcárcel-Muñoz et al. Foods. .

Abstract

Brandy de Jerez is a European Geographical Indication for grape-derived spirits aged in oak casks that have previously contained any kind of Sherry wine and, therefore, are known as Sherry Casks®. Wood compounds have a substantial influence in the quality of the brandies that are aged in the barrels. In the cellar, the barrels that have been used for many years to keep Sherry wine or other wine spirits are often used for this purpose. When wooden barrels are used for the first time, they release a large amount of compounds into the liquid contained in them. Such amount decreases over time but casks life cycle has remained unexplored until now. The present work has the aim to study the brandies obtained from the same wine spirit after two years ageing in three differently oak casks: namely new, 7 years of use (4 years containing Oloroso wine and 3 years containing wine spirits) and 32 years of use (8 years containing Oloroso wine and 24 years containing wine spirits). According to the results from our experiments, even after 32 years of use, the wood barrels still contribute to modify the organoleptic characteristics of brandy. Moreover, the brandies aged in used barrels were judged more balanced than those aged in new barrels.

Keywords: Brandy de Jerez; Sherry Cask®; ageing; aroma; oak wood.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Experimental group of barrels (two set of five barrels) and definition of the sampling plan for the physical-chemical analysis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Evolution of volatile acids in brandies aged in New barrels, 4 + 3 Used barrels, and 8 + 24 Used barrels for two years. When the standard deviation was lower than 0.8 cannot be noticed in the graph.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Evolution of Total Polyphenol Index (TPI) in brandies aged in New barrels, 4 + 3 Used barrels and 8 + 24 Used barrels for two years, expressed in mg gallic acid/100 mL of 100% vol. alcohol. The standard deviation between 4 + 3 Used barrels-aged brandies and 8 + 24 Used barrels-aged brandies was lower than 0.7 and cannot be noticed in the graph.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Evolution of ethyl acetate in brandies aged in New barrels, 4 + 3 Used barrels and 8 + 24 Used barrels for two years, expressed in mg/100 mL of 100% vol. alcohol. When the standard deviation was lower than 0.9 cannot be noticed in the graph.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Radar charts of the tasting results of brandies aged for 1 and 2 years in barrels with different previous usage: New barrels, 4 + 3 Used barrels, 8 + 24 Used barrels. (a) Odor evaluation after 1 year of ageing; (b) Flavor evaluation after 1 year of ageing; (c) Odor evaluation after 2 years of ageing; (d) Flavor evaluation after 2 years of ageing (Legend in Figure 5d).
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