Abstract: Purpose: To ascertain the effect of different winemaking technologies on the quality of dry white wine made from ‘Guankou’ grapes. Methods: The volatile and phenolic composition of ‘Guankou’ white wines made with different skin contact treatments: skin contact before fermentation (FbSC) and fermentation on skins (FoS) was determined. The sensory evaluation was also carried out. A wine fermented without any skin contact was used as control. Results: The pH of FbSC and FoS wines increased and the titratable acid content decreased as compared with control. At the same time, the levels of total phenolics (TP), total flavonoids (TF), total flavanols (TFA), and individual phenolics in FoS wine increased significantly but the total concentration of aroma compounds decreased significantly in comparison with FbSC and control wines (P < 0.05). Compared with the control wine, there was a significant decrease in acids and esters and a significant increase in alcohols and terpenes in FbSC and FoS wines (P < 0.05). Sensory analysis results showed a significant shift from the sensory attributes of fresh fruits of the control wine towards dried fruit, honey and riper fruit notes in the skin contact treatments. The quality of skin contact wine was much better than that of the control one. Conclusion: Skin contact treatments can improve the quality of ‘Guankou’ white wine.

Key words: skin contact, aroma compounds, ‘Guankou’ dry white wine, phenolics