Fake wine: ‘we are scratching the surface’

(TDB) - The amount of fake and counterfeit fine wine in the global market is still “huge” according to Maureen Downey, fine wine authentication expert and head of Chai Consulting.

Speaking during a wine industry conference at last week’s Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Fair, Downey said that the majority of counterfeit bottles had yet to be discovered by the trade and consumers, although she declined to put a figure on the amount of that could be in circulation (despite a recent estimate on this website that as much as 20% of global fine wine sales are fake).

“What percentage do we think is fake? I don’t think it is quantifiable, but I do think we are scratching the surface of something that is huge,” she said.

Supporting her view, she pointed out that alleged wine counterfeiter Rudy Kurniawan was selling as much as US$1 million worth of fine wine each year from 2002 until his arrest last year.

But, she added, “How much fake wine he was able to throw into the market… we have no idea”.

She also drew on further examples, recording for instance that “lots of fake Barton & Guestier 1900 Margaux was made”.

Although the forger responsible, Khaled Rouabah, was convicted in 2004, she said that “many of the bottles are still out there”.

Meanwhile, one of the most regularly faked wines in the world is 1945 Mouton-Rothschild according to Downey, who told attendees of the wine industry conference that Kurniawan allegedly had a “recipe” for this particular prized wine.

Downey claimed this was a mix of 50% Pichon-Lalande 1988, 25% fresh Napa Cabernet and 25% oxidised Bordeaux.

Although Downey said the problem with counterfeit fine wine was global, she stressed that the quantity of fake bottles in Asia could be especially high because it is “a nascent market” with collectors “chasing trophy wines”.

In particular, Hong Kong’s abolition of wine duty in February 2008 “led to a flood of vendors, a lot of whom didn’t have enough education [in fine wine] or were opportunistic, and took advantage of others without the education,” she explained.

She also noted that “some vendors in the USA who were selling fake wines saw an opportunity in Asia and moved their product and sometimes their whole business over here.”

Continuing she said, “They were relying on the cultural stigma about ‘saving face’ in Asia, so if collectors were defrauded, they would rather be quiet about it than suffer a loss of honour.”

However, she urged Asian collectors “to go after those who have defrauded them”.

“Victims should come forward, they can get their money back and help put bad people in jail,” she said.