30,000 bottles of allegedly fake wine seized in Taiwan

[Art_K_u_o]

i think the likes of rudy and hardy would actually be atypical in the world of fake wines… weren’t there numerous busts in Europe even after the rudy things? in fact, i would guess that most counterfeiters want to play in the cheaper market because the consumers are likely to be less educated.

[CFu]

@Art K u o

umm… there are more than 1 importer/distributer in taiwan, so even though 440,000 bottles seems like a large amount, i’m willing to go out on a limb to say that there are still plenty of legit wines in taiwan. from what i’ve read, the wines were relabled as french to be sold through channels such as convenient stores… essentially they were bottling $3/btl wines to be sold for $30… indeed a huge problem, but in my humble opinion more so for the general wine consuming public as opposed to collectors. always glad to see counterfeiters busted, but i’d reserve judgement until more facts are made public…

on the otherhand, what i really don’t understand is the champagne production vs number of bottles popped at nightclubs… it’s almost standard practice in asia, especially chinese influenced (china/hk/taiwan) regions to do a ridiculous amount of champagne at nightclubs… we’re talking like 12 bottles to start, and 100 bottle tabs are very normal… where does all of that come from!?

millions upon millions of bottles of Dom Perignon/Cristal are produced a year. That’s why you see them at every costco/supermarket you go into

[J_a_y_H_a_c_k]

Buy local, buy direct, no worries.

[Ramon_C]

@M Champney

Ramon, please take and post pix, that would be fun!

I’ll try.

Given how those sales-people follow customers that walk in to browse and will immediately sales-talk you when they see your eyes lingering a tad longer than normal on an item, it might prove to be a challenge to take photos.

It’s a department store set up where there’s usually bunch of them standing grouped together in different areas of the store and once you walk in, somebody’s always bound to approach you.

[Jay_Miller]

When I’m in Hong Kong I see DRC for sale pretty much everywhere, no matter how small the store. I assume 90% of it is fake.

[Ramon_C]

I was here at Taipei Airport/Shopping-Mall 2 months ago when Duty Free and other private stores had shelves-after-shelves of shiny Bordeaux on sale. Today, I’m back, and I only see 1/2 shelf with a handful of no-name Bordeaux. That reported bust of the fakes looks to have an impact on local sales.

[Pat_Martin]

It’s not just fine wine. I bought a bottle of high-end single malt scotch at the duty free in Seoul, and it wasn’t even drinkable. Not sure what they bottled it with but it was probably a health hazard (I mean, more so than regular alcohol).

[AlbertH]

@Pat Martin

It’s not just fine wine. I bought a bottle of high-end single malt scotch at the duty free in Seoul, and it wasn’t even drinkable. Not sure what they bottled it with but it was probably a health hazard (I mean, more so than regular alcohol).

^ this is even more concerning to me than the fake wine when I travel to asia… your amber liquors are packed wall to wall in every asian airport’s duty free shop and I’ve been more than tempted to pick up some harder to find Hibiki and other Japanese whiskeys. Now I’m not sure I should next time.

[John_Morris]

@R Cabrera

I was here at Taipei Airport/Shopping-Mall 2 months ago when Duty Free and other private stores had shelves-after-shelves of shiny Bordeaux on sale. Today, I’m back, and I only see 1/2 shelf with a handful of no-name Bordeaux. That reported bust of the fakes looks to have an impact on local sales.

Well, I’m glad they store them so the corks don’t dry out.

[Howard_Cooper]

@William Gladstone

@Marcus Stanley

This sounds like an ordinary wine collectors NIGHTMARE. I don’t care about bespoke fraud at expensive auctions because I don’t buy there. But this kind of operation – a big foreign importer who can make good labels rebottling crap as fine Bordeaux and then selling it into the grey market – this would hit your ordinary collector who buys the low price on Winesearcher or who orders from Premier Cru and the like. Argh.

This is just awful, it hurts so many people, although I was unaware that there is any problem ordering wine from Premier Cru (Berkeley CA. I assume). Other folks on this site informed me they just have a different business model and that allows them to sell for a lower price then everyone else.

The amount of large stocks of fraudulent wine through-out Asia is staggering. Which is why it is so attractive to order fine wine at a discount at Premier Cru - which is what I think you are suggesting,

Yet another person in the trade trashing Premier Cru. Don’t like competition???

[Ramon_C]

@John Morris

@R Cabrera

I was here at Taipei Airport/Shopping-Mall 2 months ago when Duty Free and other private stores had shelves-after-shelves of shiny Bordeaux on sale. Today, I’m back, and I only see 1/2 shelf with a handful of no-name Bordeaux. That reported bust of the fakes looks to have an impact on local sales.

Well, I’m glad they store them so the corks don’t dry out.

I uploaded the photo from iPhone right after snapping the photo at the airport and it looked right-side up when I previewed, but was upside-down after I submitted. I tried to fix but can’t figure out how.

In any case, almost all the bottles that I see, Bordeaux or otherwise, that are being sold in the airport are standing up.

[Scott_G_r_u_n_e_r]

@AlbertH

@Pat Martin

It’s not just fine wine. I bought a bottle of high-end single malt scotch at the duty free in Seoul, and it wasn’t even drinkable. Not sure what they bottled it with but it was probably a health hazard (I mean, more so than regular alcohol).

^ this is even more concerning to me than the fake wine when I travel to asia… your amber liquors are packed wall to wall in every asian airport’s duty free shop and I’ve been more than tempted to pick up some harder to find Hibiki and other Japanese whiskeys. Now I’m not sure I should next time.

Continuing Thread Drift- I have found more and more duty free liquors to be weird “exclusive to duty free” type bottlings. It’s almost like they are dumping their excess or lesser barrels on the duty free market. Macallan seemed to be one of the first to do this.