A Refined Gas Chromatographic Procedure for the Measurement of Acetic Acid in Wines and Its Comparison with the Distillation Method

Abstract

Gas chromatography provided an accurate method for quick and precise analysis of acetic acid in wines. The complete separation of acetic acid from ethanol without `tailing' or 'ghosting' was accomplished by column choice and by saturation of the nitrogen carrier gas with formic acid vapor. A column packed with Carbopack B coated with Carbowax 20M as the liquid phase was used. l-Pentanol (n-Amyl alcohol), normally not found in wine, was used as the internal standard. Good correlation was observed when comparing GC acetic acid values with the conventional steam distillation method. The accuracy of the GC method was ± 1.2 % at the 0.04 g/100 mL acetic acid concentration level. The standard deviation for the most complex wine analyzed (red wine) was ± 0.0007 g/100 mL.