It isn’t just old wines…
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 11:44:00 +1000
From: “MCNAUGHTON, IAN” <IMCNAUGH@vnpbtrom.telstra.com.au>
Subject: Counterfeit Grange
This morning’s Australian has an article on counterfeit Grange: a
forgery racket picked up in mistakes in the labels of bottles of 1990
Grange, one of which was a misspelling of ‘pour’ as ‘poor’. You’d think
if you were going to go to all that trouble you’d have a proofer.
Apparently, counterfeiting in the ‘secondary wine market’ is not
uncommon as per ‘fine’ art.
Counterfeit Grange
Martin Field
As counterfeit bottles of Australia’s most famous wine,
Penfolds Grange, continue to circulate, Penfolds’ parent company
Southcorp has instituted proceedings in the Federal Court in Melbourne
in an attempt to bring to justice the fraudulent fakesters of pseudo
Penfolds.
Word around the wine traps is that the offending 1990
vintage so-called Grunge is near-perfectly packaged. Apparently the
fake packaging includes faux Grange tissue paper, look-alike six-pack
Grange wooden boxes, and Grange-type corks. The labels, save for a
couple of minor errors, would presumably fool the average wine
drinker. One imbiber I met in a Carlton wine bar claimed to have
actually seen an offending six-pack and to have consumed a
bottle. “Good wine,” he said, “definitely not Grange but would pass
for a less expensive Penfolds red.” Adding, “Makes you wonder whether
it wasn’t an inside job.”
Meanwhile, ancient (and possibly undrinkable) bottles of
Grange continue to maintain high prices at Australian auction
houses. On 14 December 1998 a bottle of the 1951 vintage sold in
Sydney for $21,000, this followed the record price of $24,500 set in
Sydney for $21,000, this followed the record price of $24,500 set in
Melbourne in late November. The previous record for this vintage was
$20,460, realised in October. There are thought to be only 20 to 50
bottles of the ‘51 in existence as the wine, bottled in February 1952,
was an experimental label and was never commercially released. (It is
not known how many bottles of counterfeit Grange are in
circulation. Though they may yet become black market collectors’ items
in their own right.)
And Grange prices, especially for earlier vintages, are
expected to soar in 1999 as wealthy buyers, desperate to complete
collections of all Grange vintages, boost the market.
Capital city casinos are also aggressive buyers, presenting
bottles of the prestige-ridden red to high-rolling gamblers to
encourage their dubious custom.
Martin Field
Court bid to put cork on fake wine
Date: 08/01/99
By PENELOPE DEBELLE in Adelaide
The appearance on the lucrative wine market of the second batch of
fake Grange in less than a year has sent Penfolds to the courts in an
attempt to protect its famous brand.
Although the major fraud squad in Victoria does not have enough
information to bring charges, Penfolds is considering action through
the civil courts to pursue those behind the fraud.
“We are basically trying to protect our brand to ensure we catch the
people and that this does not happen again,” said the global brand
manager of Penfolds, Mr Lou Wijeyaratne.
A second batch of counterfeit Penfolds Grange from the acclaimed 1990
vintage appeared on the market in early December. It is understood the
wine, more of the same fake Grange discovered by a Melbourne auction
room last March, was once again sold in Victoria.
The 1990 vintage, which has cellaring potential of up to 40 years and
won the Wine Spectator wine of the year award, commands anything from
$300 to $500 a bottle, depending on condition. The genuine vintage is
said to be exceptionally rich and opulent with enormous complexity.
When the first six bottles of fake Grange were found last year
Penfolds went public, warning consumers of the counterfeit 1990
vintage with its telltale black instead of red barcode and a spelling
mistake on the label which reads “poor” instead of “pour”.
However, this time Penfolds - which has been conducting its own
private investigations into the fraud - went to the Federal Court in
Melbourne just before Christmas trying to suppress information it was
trying to extract from fraud police.
Penfolds is considering court action which would require a Victorian
police officer to disclose information uncovered in the course of
police inquiries. “We want information about the people involved with
it so we can get to the bottom and try to put a stop to it,” Mr
Wijeyaratne said.
But this time, Penfolds felt the public should not be allowed to share
the information for fear of jeopardising any civil action it may take.
In the Federal Court on December 22 the company applied unsuccessfully
to suppress evidence and the name of witnesses which the policeman may
be asked to disclose. Mr Wijeyaratne said this did not imply police
knew more than Penfolds’s private investigators but was an official
way of getting information from police.
Penfold’s owners, Southcorp, had argued the second attempt to sell
fake Grange, and the absence of charges to date, meant the company
might pursue civil proceedings.
Mr Wijeyaratne said the counterfeit was small scale and not very
accomplished, given the two obvious mistakes and other details obvious
to winemakers.
