Effects of Secondary Fermentation of Four In-Bottle Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Strains on Sparkling Cider Sensory Quality

We hypothesized that statistical analyses could be used to quantitate the effect of secondary fermentation on the sensory characteristics of sparkling ciders. We used champagne yeast and cider yeast strains to elaborate sparkling cider by the traditional method that is commonly used to produce sparkling wine. We analyzed the physicochemical and sensory indices of cider fermented by four yeast strains (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). We used unsupervised and supervised statistical techniques to compare the volatile compounds and eight odor descriptors (tropical fruity, temperate fruity, herbaceous, baking, fungus, alcoholic, animal, and sour) among these samples. A principal component analysis of the two sets of data indicated that in terms of yeast strains, there was good separation between the samples; the fruity smells mainly corresponded to β-damascenone and linalool. 2-Methyl-1-butanol, nonanal, decanal, and 3-octanone corresponded to the smell of herbaceous. Using partial least-squares regression analysis, we eliminated 13 volatile compounds with variable importance of projection (VIP)≥1 by screening, which corresponded to the overall aroma of sparkling cider. These results help to better understand the aroma perception of sparkling cider