Differentiation of Spanish brandies according to their metal content

Eleven metals, namely, aluminium, calcium, cadmium, copper, iron, lead, mag nesium, manganese, potassium, sodium and zinc were determined in twenty sam ples of Sherry brandies and twelve samples of Penedes brandies by applying atomic spectrometry techniques. Flame atomic absorption spectrometry was us ed for quantitating calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc; a tomic emission spectrometry to determine potassium and sodium; and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry to analyse aluminium, cadmium and l ead. A chemometric approach was followed to study the discrimination betwee n brandies from Sherry or Penedes according to the metal profile. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.