An electronic nose for characterising the aroma profile of whisky obtained by a novel accelerated aging process

Aging, which usually requires long storage in barrels, is one of the most important phases of whisky production process, since it is responsible for the development of its characteristic aroma profile. Novel aging techniques, such as ultrasound-based maturation, are being proposed to shorten this time, but they often encounter the scepticism of consumers about the quality of the obtained product. This work explores the possibility to use an Electronic Nose (EN) and illustrates the setup and the methodology developed to analyse and compare the aroma profile of commercial whisky aged in barrels with the ones that underwent sonication for accelerating their maturation. This work aims at investigating similarities and/or differences between the two products to evaluate the goodness of the novel process. Results achieved proved the effectiveness of the developed system in capturing variations in the different whiskies aromatic profile, and the efficacy of sonication in enhancing the development of aged aromatic profile close to “real” aged whisky.