Two different strategies for the quantitative determination of 3-alkyl-2-methoxypyrazines in wine and must have been developed and validated. Comparison between both the techniques has been presented and the most adequate has been applied to the determination of these compounds in different samples of wine, made from several varieties of grapes, and also in different samples of must made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Both the methods consisted of a dynamic headspace coupled with a solid-phase extraction (HS-SPE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) directly from the sample, coupled with multidimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry system (MDGC-MS). Both of them require resins LiChrolut EN, and analyte elution has been carried out with dichloromethane. The repeatability of both methodologies was evaluated at two concentration levels. The relative standard deviations (RSD%) were acceptable in every case, but smaller when working with HS-SPE. The recoveries obtained for the three analytes with the two methodologies were almost 100%, with the exception of IBMP, which had a recovery of only 70% with HS-SPE. The linearity was satisfactory with both methods for the range of occurrence of methoxypyrazines in wine and must. The limits of detection of the direct SPE technique were much lower than those of HS-SPE in every case. Direct SPE method detection limits ranged from 0.09 to 0.15 ng L(-1). The method based on direct SPE was chosen finally because it had better detection limits and was easier and quicker than the HS-SPE-based method. It has been applied to the determination of these components in 36 wine and 17 musts samples. The quantitative results suggest that the Spanish wines show meaningless amounts of these compounds. IBMP has been found just in between 1.9 and 15 ng L(-1).