Comparison of an Electronic Nose Based on Ultrafast Gas Chromatography, Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography, and Sensory Evaluation for an Analysis of Type of Whisky

Whisky is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages. There are many types of whisky, for example, Scotch, Irish, and American whisky (called bourbon). The whisky market is highly diversified, and, because of this, it is important to have a method which would enable rapid quality evaluation and authentication of the type of whisky. The aim of this work was to compare 3 methods: an electronic nose based on the technology of ultrafast gas chromatography (Fast-GC), comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC x GC), and sensory evaluation. The selected whisky brands included 6 blended whiskies from Scotland, 4 blended whiskies from Ireland, and 4 bourbons produced in the USA. For data analysis, peak heights of chromatograms were used. The panelists who took part in sensory evaluations included 4 women and 4 men. The obtained data were analyzed by 2 chemometric methods: partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and discrimination function analysis (DFA). E-nose and GC x GC allowed for differentiation between whiskies by type. Sensory analysis did not allow for differentiation between whiskies by type, but it allowed giving consumer preferences.