Abstract: The process conditions for the primary fermentation of ‘Sanhua’ plum wine were optimized and its aroma
components were analyzed. By comparing the alcohol-producing abilities of different brands of yeast, dry yeast from Mauri
was chosen as the best starter culture for the primary fermentation of ‘Sanhua’ plum wine. The effects of inoculum size,
initial sugar degree, initial pH and fermentation temperature on the alcohol content of plum wine were investigated using
one-factor-at-a-time method. Further these process conditions were optimized by a four-factor and three-level Box-Behnken
design with response surface methodology. The results showed that the optimum fermentation parameters were determined as
yeast inoculation of 5%, sugar degree of 24 °Bx, initial pH of 3.70, fermentation temperature of 28 ℃ and fermentation time
of 5 d. Under these conditions, the alcohol content was 12.4%. After 22 d secondary fermentation, the aroma components of
the wine were extracted by headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and identified by gas chromatography-mass
spectrometry (GC-MS). Totally 31 aroma components were identified from the wine, constituting 99.48% of the total peak
area. The major aroma compounds were isoamyl alcohol, isobutanol alcohol, ethyl acetate and ethyl octanoate.

Key words: ‘Sanhua&rsquo, plum wine, fermentation, process optimization, aroma components, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)