Behaviour of some volatile compounds during distillation of fermented marc exposed to the smoking process

Fermented marc was exposed to a controlled smoking process for 120, 240 and 460 min before distillation. To improve insight into the behaviour of ethanol and the partitioning of some volatile compounds, each distillate was collected in fractions (ethanol content from 24 to 59% vol) and analysed for the higher alcohols (2-butanol, n-butanol, n-propanol, isoamyl alcohols, n-hexanol) ethyl esters (ethyl acetate, ethyl lactate, ethyl caproate, ethyl caprylate, ethyl caprate, ethyl myristate and ethyl laurate) and volatile phenols (guaiacol, methyl guaiacol, ethyl guaiacol, propyl guaiacol, eugenol and isoeugenol). The results obtained showed that the behaviour of ethanol was not regular and the alcohol strength was lower when the smoking process was applied to fermented marc. The volatile phenols highlighted a distillation behaviour characterised by an increase in concentration at the end of the distillation process when ethanol decreased. Long time exposure of the marc to the smoking process resulted in higher reduction of ethanol, higher alcohols and ethyl esters. Instead, the volatile phenols increased with the duration of the smoking process.