Abstract: The influence of different geographic origins (the United States, Hungary and France) and toasting levels (light and medium) of oak barrels on the evolution of volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) in wine during maturation was investigated in this study. Wines aged in stainless steel tanks were used as the control. Gas chromatography with flame photometric detection (GC-PFD) was used to monitor the changes of 16 VSCs in wines during the year of aging, and 7 VSCs were quanti?ed in all samples. Most VSCs tended to decline or changed slightly during the aging process, while the contents of dimethyl sulfide and ethyl thioacetate were found to increase. After one-year aging, the levels of most VSCs were lower in the wines aged in oak barrels than in stainless steel tanks. Multi-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the geographic origin of oak barrels signi?cantly in?uenced the concentrations of S-methyl thioacetate and 2-methyltetrahy-drothiophen-3-one (P < 0.001), while the toasting level of oak barrels signi?cantly in?uenced the concentration of 2-(methylthio) ethanol (P < 0.001). This study reported the evolution of VSCs in wines during oak barrel aging and evaluated the influence of oak barrel types on it, which would provide wine-makers with useful information for wine oak barrel aging.

Key words: volatile sulfur compounds, oak barrel aging, geographic origin, toasting levels, flavor compounds