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“There are no great wines, only great bottles,” declared André Simon, a famous, London-based, French epicurean and wine writer. Simon was referring, several decades ago, to the effects of crumbly, frequently tainted corks and the variable conditions of private cellars for maturing wine.
Today, it is widely recognised that wine lovers are facing another major challenge: fraudulent wines.
How common is counterfeit wine? About 20% by value of all wines sold around the globe are fake, according to the world’s leading wine authenticator, US-based Maureen Downey.
That claim probably won’t surprise David Tyney, who, in 2009, founded Cirro Wines in Marlborough. Recently, Tyney issued a press release saying Cirro has become “the first New Zealand wine company to have illegal copies of its wine found in the Chinese market.”
Cirro’s wines are not prominent in New Zealand, although Blackmarket, a major online retailer, offers Cirro’s sauvignon blanc, pinot gris and rosé at $18.99. In China, it’s a different story.
“Our sauvignon blanc is in the top three New Zealand wines sold in China,” says Tyney, “and clearly they have noticed.”
The fake Cirro wines have a different brand name and are identified as of Spanish origin, but the label design is strikingly similar, featuring the high, wispy, cirrus clouds often seen over Marlborough. Anyone just glancing at the label without reading or understanding the words could easily be confused.
Could Kiwi wine lovers be duped in the same way Chinese consumers are being deceived by the fake Cirro wines? New Zealand’s wine consumption per capita is more than 13 times higher than China’s, so consumers here are likely to be more knowledgeable. But don’t feel complacent.
If you have a personal wine collection, or are planning one, can you spot the fakes? The news is good, according to Downey. “With a few simple tools [such as a blue light and a microscope] and a little bit of information, people can catch 90% of counterfeits.”
Buy from a trustworthy source
If you want your bottles to be genuine, one top tip is to buy directly from the producer. If you are buying from a reputable retailer, know the person you are dealing with. If they tell you that a wine you especially desire is no longer available, resist the urge to go online searching for it yourself, because it is more likely to be a counterfeit.
Know your facts
Don’t buy wines that seem too good to be true – they probably are. Check out the facts first. Beware of “unicorn” wines that, Downey says, “exist only in the mind of the counterfeiter.” Burgundy winemaker Emmanuel Ponsot reported that wine forger Rudi Kurniawan created a bottle of his Clos Saint-Denis 1945, despite the fact Ponsot’s first vintage of the wine was 1982.
Check the paper of the label
Paper has changed over the years. A formula called “ultrawhite” was introduced in the late 1950s to brighten paper labels. These coating agents are luminous under blue light, so if your prized bottle of 1945 has an ultrawhite label, it’s probably a fake.
Check the quality of the printing
Plate presses, commonly used to produce fine wine labels, leave an outline that is visible under magnification. Counterfeiters tend to use inkjet printers. If you see coloured spots or pixelation, that’s a red flag.
Check the ageing of the label
Counterfeiters use many techniques to make shiny new wine labels look older, including baking them in the oven and dirt from shellac. But paper oxidises at a steady rate, so beware labels that have oxidised in one corner and not in another. Also, watch out for bottles where the front, back and vintage labels are not ageing consistently.
Check for glue stains
Counterfeiters tend to paste labels on, then straighten them, often leaving glue residue on the bottle. And glues used since the 1960s, like ultrawhite paper, fluoresce under blue light.
Check the capsule
Over time, the capsules on wine bottles switched from lead to tin to aluminium. Check for remnants of a previous closure. Multiple creases suggest a capsule has been reapplied.
Check the bottle
Genuine French bottles from the 1930s onwards have their capacity (eg, 75cl) imprinted on the glass. And if you are lucky enough to have a genuine, hand-blown bottle from the 19th century, it is likely to wobble on a smooth surface.
Check for sediment
The sediment that forms naturally as a wine matures is typically easily dispersed by moving the bottle. If the sediment is chunky and doesn’t move, fraudsters have probably heated and baked it on.
Check the cork
The cork in a bottle that has been lying on its side for many years should have a deep stain, gradually extending towards the top of the capsule. Fake wine often lacks the stain. Also, check the sides of the cork for marks left by the operation of a specialised, two-pronged cork extractor, called Ah-So. If you spot grooves in the cork, the wine is likely to be fake.
New technology
Fortunately, new technology is starting to help producers combat fraud. Since 2022, Grosset Wines in South Australia has inserted a microchip under its screw caps. When a consumer hovers their mobile phone over the cap, the chip indicates if the contents of the bottle match the label.
A quick history of recent wine fraud
The fine wine trade was finally forced to take fraud seriously by the Kurniawan scandal. After selling a seemingly endless stream of rare and valuable wines, the Californian home of Rudi Kurniawan, who began buying and selling rare wines in the early 2000s, was raided in 2012 by the FBI. Agents found forger’s gear, including a hoard of empty bottles, corks and labels.
Downey estimated in 2018 that about US$550 million of Kurniawan’s wines are still around. “Here’s the problem: if I have a client with counterfeit wine [the auctioneer] will give them their money back after they sign a non-disclosure agreement and return the bottles. We know those bottles aren’t being destroyed… So the wines end up getting recirculated. They get sold in Asia.”
The biggest concern around the world is that large volume, “commercial” wines are being counterfeited. In 2012, it emerged countless American consumers had been taken for a ride by “Red Bicyclette” and other brands.
After Sideways, a 2004 movie, boosted demand for pinot noir in the US, the wine monolith E&J Gallo imported the equivalent of 18 million bottles of “pinot noir” from a collective of winegrowers in Languedoc. Instead, the suppliers shipped merlot and syrah, masquerading as pinot noir. The defence lawyers argued: “Not a single American consumer complained.”
Three years ago, in the UK, retailers in Birmingham were caught selling fake bottles of Yellow Tail, a popular range of Australian wines (available in New Zealand at $12-$15.) This time, a customer did complain about the wine’s disappointing quality but got no help from the shop.
The West Midlands Police reported the supply of fake wine to retailers was usually from the back of a truck, avoiding duty and taxes, with payment in cash. A local expert described the counterfeit Yellow Tail as duller, less fruity and richly flavoured than the original.
What’s the most forged wine of all?
“For older wines,” says Scott Evers, an Australian authenticator, “the most counterfeited producer is between Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Chateau Pétrus, but Lafite and d’Yquem are up there as well. For a particular bottling of wine, 1945 Mouton is probably most counterfeited. In Asia, Penfolds Grange and Bin 707 are the most highly counterfeited, along with Lafite.”
If you’re stuck with expensive old fakes, it may not be a total disaster. Oz Clarke has tasted “a few of those 19th-century Bordeaux and they were all stuffed. I’ve had similar bottles that were supposed to be fraudulent – and they were a much better drink.”
