Towards understanding the varietal typicity of virgin olive oil by correlating sensory and compositional analysis data: a case study

To investigate if the anecdotal varietal typicity concepts for two monovarietal virgin olive oils (VOO) can bescientifically supported and explained, VOO samples were sorted according to typicity grade and related tosensory and compositional data for volatiles and phenols. Clear inter-varietal, as well as intra-varietal bound-aries between more and less typical samples were established by univariate and multivariate statistics. A variety-typical complex odor was related to a complex VOO volatile composition with relatively high amounts of li-poxygenase-derived compounds, accompanied by hydrocarbons, terpenes, and benzenoids. A simpler odor,described mostly as green and typical for the other monovarietal VOO, coincided with the lower amounts of thesame volatiles. The intensity of bitterness and pungency was mostly in correlation with the amount of majorphenols. Two monovarietal VOOs were clearly distinguished with respect to their variety-typical expression ofpungency: the one described as gradually increasing was tentatively related to pinoresinol, while the other, de-scribed as immediately strong and burning, was assumed to originate mainly from p-HPEA-EDA. Intra-varietaltypicity grades correlated with hedonic liking, as well as with general VOO positive sensory attributes related tokey volatiles and phenols