Analysis of the Volatile Organic Compound Fingerprint of Greek Grape Marc Spirits of Various Origins and Traditional Production Styles

The most well-known traditional Greek grape marc distillate made from winemaking pomace is called “Tsipouro”. Its production involves various cultivars, preparation protocols, and anise-flavoring or not, it should be a colorless liquid with intense organoleptic properties due to the raw materials used in its have minimum alcoholic strength of 37.5% by volume. This study aimed characterize volatilome tsipouro products covering as many geographical areas styles possible, there lack characterization aromatic composition this beverage. A Headspace Solid Phase Microextraction Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) method was applied 60 samples, resulting identification semi-quantification over 90 volatile compounds. statistical analysis pointed out metabolites that characterized each product group underlined influence origin protocol. Aniseed spirits Northern Greece, Macedonia, Limnos Island, Thessaly, produced Muscat pomaces, were found richer terpenes, terpenoids, flavored compounds, attributing aroma quality; different terpenoids dominant distillates regions, showing importance process. In conclusion, results demonstrated high variability Tsipouro, explained diversity caused mainly material, could helpful better protection improvement quality.