That’s the spirit!

By Ida Emilie Steinmark2020-11-04T09:09:00

An illustration of a beam of light passing through a whisky bottle to become a rainbow and some tartan, symbolising raman spectroscopy

Source: © Dan Bright

How Raman spectroscopy is fighting the growing problem of fake whisky

In 2017, Zhang Wei paid the eye-watering sum of £7600 for a shot of 1878 Macallan single malt Scotch. A photo of the event soon led to whisky experts questioning the authenticity of the bottle’s contents. Testing revealed the supposedly 140-year-old single malt was in fact a blend from the early 1970s. Counterfeit whisky is a big problem, and chemistry is key to revealing the fakes. This article describes how Raman spectroscopy is helping.

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