Hello, Does anybody know the content of monoterpenes in pinot gris juice compared with e g that of riesling, or muscat? Googled so I have to put my eyes in ice water to make them quit steaming ... Cheers and TIA Nils
Monoterpenes in pinot gris
Sep 14, 2009
4 Replies
None of the articles I found (e.g.
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mentions terpenes as being particularly associated with pinot gris. So, my guess is that PG does not have much terpene content compared to muscat varieties, riesling and gewurztraminer. It must be difficult to measure terpenes quantitatively, because thet are such volatile compounds.
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So volatile, they are gone by the time you put the probe in... :-)))
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Monoterpenes are molecules derived from two isoprene units, giving them
10 carbons. Well-known monoterpenes are the pinenes (alpha and beta, Pine-Sol constituents), limonene (oil of lemon), geraniol (rose oil), camphor, menthol, thujone (from wormwood and other herbs), etc. They are typically aromatic liquids. They are easily analyzed using gas chromatography (GC), but I doubt that anyone (aside from Gallo, perhaps) has done an exhaustive analysis of wine terpenes by GC.Mark Lipton
I finally found some data on a German site,
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which indicates that the monoterpene content is about an order of magnitude less in PG than in Riesling. Different sources give different baselines for Riesling, which at least in part should be due to the provenance of the must, as it ahs been demonstrated to what extent monoterpene content varies according to exposure, canopy managment, and other factors. This places PG on the same level as CabSauv and SauvBl. The aroma profile of PG apparently depends to a larger part on volatile thiols and other flavor compounds, but research is incomplete.
My interest is due to an upcoming lecture on "aromatic white wines" in which Alsace PG is included.
Thank you for taking an interest.
Cheers
Nils "Mark Lipt>>
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