Major congeners of australian and imported brandies and other spirits as indicators of authenticity

The quantitative determination of the congeners methanol, n‐propanol, ethyl acetate, i‐butanol (2‐methyl‐1‐propanol) and amyl alcohols (2‐methyl‐1‐butanol and 3‐methyl‐1‐butanol, which were not separated), was carried out on 61 Australian brandies, 61 French brandies and 50 wine distillates by gas chromatography. A comparison of the absolute amounts of congeners and their ratios (in the case of the C3–C5 alcohols) is presented in the light of several criteria of authenticity proposed by previous workers. Of these criteria, it was found that the amyl/i‐butyl alcohol ratio and the i‐butyl/n‐propyl alcohol ratio were the most useful—on this basis, 11 French brandies (but no Australian brandy) were considered to be of suspect authenticity.