Approaches of Authentication on Macallan Scotch Whiskies

• Main Authors: Po-Hsun Pan, 潘柏勳
• Other Authors: Wei-Tun Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/vtpft8

碩士 === 中央警察大學 === 鑑識科學研究所 === 102 === According to the statistical data concerning the export market for Scotch whisky to all countries in 2012, Taiwan was ranked with the fifteenth based on the volume, however, was ranked with the sixth based on the value. Macallan Single Malt Whisky has been regarded as the most popular item in the consumer marketing in Taiwan. Meanwhile, it has also been found from the investigation of the real cases in the past decade to become the main target of counterfeits for considerable profits by unscrupulous businessmen due to its price and popularity. The study is mainly focused on adopting major components of Macallan whisky as the benchmark test for the authentication purposes. First, the alcohol contents in all whiskies are determined with a Hand-Held Alcohol Refractometer for the screening purpose. The qualitative analysis of the major components in the Macallan Whisky, except alcohol, is conducted based on the comparison with standards by GC/MS approach. By adding an internal standard (I.S.) into each whiskey sample, the semi-quantitative data are obtained from the ratios of major components to the I.S. Authentication of Macallan Whisky involving the problems of forgery and age is evaluated by two analytical strategies, respectively, under GC/MS and GC-IRMS approaches. The first protocol with GC/MS approach is to compare the genuine and forged whiskies by the principal component analysis (PCA) of multivariate statistics assisted with t-test based on semi-quantitative data. The second protocol with GC/MS approach is to evaluate the age of Macallan Whisky by the curve prediction of linear regression model which is generated by monitoring the ratio changes of two components along with increases of whisky ages. In GC-IRMS analytical protocol, δ13C values of the major components not only are used to discriminate the genuine and forged whiskies but also used to evaluate the age levels for Macallan Whiskies with different ages via one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The resulting datum show that the semi-quantitative analysis using 17 major components in whiskies by GC/MS approach assisted with PCA statistical method can be adopted to confirm the authenticity of Macallan Whisky. The estimated regression curve set up using two specific components, ethyl acetate and acetic acid/furfural, can be used to distinguish ages of sherry oak series. Besides, δ13C values under GC-IRMS analysis assisting with further variance examination also have potential for the authenticity of whisky. In practice, the seized and the simulated counterfeit whiskies are adopted to verify the feasibility of the approaches for the authentication of Macallan Whisky. Therefore, while combining component features of Macallan Whisky and statistical approaches used in GC/MS and GC-IRMS analysis, the systematic procedure from the comparison of major components in Macallan Whisky is useful for the authenticity and age matters.