Top 10 wine scandals
17th August, 2011
by
Rupert Millar
-
Fleecing the dragon
Although Asia has had the occasional case of a wrongly labelled Lafite or a Pétrus that actually came from Gaochang or Shandong Province, the biggest scam involved flooding the market with South American “Fitou”.
Between 2007 and 2010 it is estimated that 400,000 bottles of what appeared to be Mont Tauch Fitou AOC were imported.
The deception was rumbled when reports of Mont Tauch being sold at very low prices reached the ears of Mont Tauch’s sales team, the sole distributors of the brand in Asia.
Analysis of the wine suggested that it was probably bulk wine from South America in very well forged packaging.
The company stated that the incident had “in no way” dampened its desire to do business in China or the rest of the Far East.
And it’s not just within China that counterfeit bottles have appeared. Who can forget the influx of fake Jacob’s Creek that found its way onto shelves in the UK earlier this year?
The bottles were sold with a charming mistake on the back of the label that claimed that the wines really were from “Austrlia”.