NIR spectroscopy for predicting the aroma potential of intact tempranillo grape berries during ripening

The aroma maturity of grape berries is one of the most relevant factors in the final quality of wine. For this reason, it is important to have tools that enable the characterization of such composition during ripening, in a fast, periodic and non-invasive way. In this work, the use of NIRS to predict the volatile composition of Tempranillo grape berries at different ripening stages has been studied. NIR spectra, volatile compounds, and total soluble solid (TSS) of 240 Tempranillo samples were acquired and measured. With the spectral and chemical data calibration models were built using modified partial least squares (MPLS) regression. Values of R2CV ≥ 0.3 were obtained for all compounds, which allows differentiating between high and low volatile content. Based on this result, it can be affirmed that NIRS is a reliable and non-destructive tool for monitoring volatile composition in Tempranillo grape berries, offering the potential for on-field quality assessment during ripening.