Metal content in southern Spain wines and their classification according to origin and ageing

Young and aged wines from two viticole zones in the Andalusian province of Córdoba (southern Spain) were analysed for their content in Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and Na, K, Al and Sr by flame atomic emission spectrophotometry. Significant differences in mean content were found for Na, Mn, Mg, Fe and Zn between wines from Montilla–Moriles and Villaviciosa. Linear discriminant analysis using those variables gave 97.9% recognition ability and 95.7% prediction ability. Cluster and principal component analysis show some differences in wines according to geographical origin and to the ageing of wines. Significant differences between young and aged wines were found in the mean content for Mg, K, Sr, Zn and Mn, obtaining 93.62% recognition ability and prediction ability by using linear discriminant analysis and leave-one-out cross-validation test, respectively. Finally, linear discriminant analysis could also be able to classify the samples according to their provenance and to their ageing simultaneously, obtaining 93.6% of the wines correctly classified.