High-quality wine vinegars with unique organoleptic characteristics are produced in
southern Spain under three Protected Designations of Origin (PDO), namely “Jerez”, “Condado
de Huelva” and “Montilla-Moriles”. To guarantee their authenticity and avoid frauds, robust and
low-cost analytical methodologies are needed for the quality control and traceability of vinegars.
In this study, we propose the use of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy in combination with multivariate
statistical tools to discriminate Spanish wine vinegars according to their geographical origin, as well
as to predict their physicochemical and functional properties. Linear discriminant analysis provided
a clear clustering of vinegar samples according to the PDO with excellent classification performance
(98.6%). Furthermore, partial least squares regression analysis demonstrated that spectral data
can serve as accurate predictors of the total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of vinegars.
Accordingly, UV-Vis spectroscopy stands out as a suitable analytical tool for simple and rapid
authentication and traceability of vinegars.