Fungi in the family Ceratocystidaceae produce fusel alcohols and acetates, which have fruity and floral odours. These compounds are valuable additives of food products, perfumes and soaps. Our aim was to analyse the volatiles produced by the Ceratocystidaceae and to study their biosynthesis. All the strains included in our study produced high levels of isoamyl acetate while some members of Bretziella, Berkeleyomyces, Ceratocystis and Huntiella produced isobutyl acetate. The majority of Ceratocystidaceae also produced 2-phenylethyl acetate in low quantities. Fusel alcohols are produced in fungi from amino acids via the Ehrlich pathway in a three-step catabolic process. We searched in the available genomes of fungi in the Ceratocystidaceae for genes encoding enzymes involved in catalysing the first and second steps in the production of the fusel alcohols. We discovered three gene sequences encoding putative aromatic amino transferases, three gene sequences encoding putative branched-chain amino transferases and a single gene sequence encoding a putative pyruvate decarboxylase in each of the genomes. We also discovered that most fungi of the Sordariomycetes which do not produce fruity or floral smells have a similar number of copies of each of these genes. The amino transferases from C. albifundus, C. manginecans, E. polonica and H. monilliformis were heterologously expressed and functionally characterized by in vitro enzyme assays. All the assayed enzymes were either functional aromatic amino transferases accepting the substrates phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan or branched-chain amino acid transferases accepting the substrates leucine, isoleucine or valine.