Chemical Variability of Essential Oils from Corsican Hops and Highlighting Their Influence on Hops’ Aroma

Abstract

Essential oils from wild Corsican hops have never been described before. Following selective harvesting and extraction of plant material, chemical analysis was performed by GC–FID and GC–MS. Subsequent quantitative analysis demonstrated significant inter-stations variability due to pedoclimatic conditions. These singularities produce organoleptic differences, especially within Italian hops, which are the current benchmark for the Mediterranean hops’ population. Corsican wild hops are no exception. Accordingly, three olfactive bouquets were identified by a panel of selected and trained sensory analysts: woody herbaceous ginger notes, herbaceous citrus notes, and common notes. These bouquets appeared to be correlated to pedoclimatic parameters mentioned earlier such as altitude and proximity to the sea. A very rare and appreciated bouquet was associated with high levels of zingiberene in hops growing at moderate altitude and relatively far from the coastline. This study shows the importance of growing sites and pedoclimatic conditions to produce hops with the desired organoleptic notes during the beer making process and provides detailed identification of essential oils from Corsican wild hops.