Optical spectroscopy and pattern recogition techniques for discriminating and classifying Scotch whiskies

The present study shows how optical spectroscopy can be innovatively used as a rapid and non-destructive tool to differentiate distinctive single malt Scotch whiskies with respect to commercial-grade blends, and for their classification according to the region of production. Absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy were combined with multivariate data analysis so as to build a discriminating map. The map showed that the clusters representing the single malt whiskies from selected distilleries were sharply separated from the cluster grouping the other whiskies of commercial-grade. Moreover, the cluster of single malt whisky was split into two subgroups, representing samples from two main macro-areas, the islands and the highlands, respectively.