SummaryA method is proposed for the determination of sorbic acid in wines using a hydrogen sulfonated divinyl benzene-styrene copolymer (DVB-H) HPLC column and isocratic elution with 0.01N H2SO4: CH3CN (75:25). UV detection at 258 nm permits analysis by direct injection of white and red wines without significant interfererice between the peaks of sorbic acid and other sample components. The limit of detectability of the method is 0.01 mg L -1 with an average recovery of 99.6 % and an average %RSD of 0.87. Analyses of 30 wine samples by the proposed method and the official EEC spectrophotometric method show that there is a good correlation between the results of the two methods, although the HPLC analyses are clearly more precise and accurate.