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A Fraudulent Bottle Only To The Eye of the Beholder

» posted by Rich on 2010-03-09 11:27:23

With all the recent wine fraud cases popping up in the news, the fake pinot Noir and the Australian wine investment scam, it got me thinking about wine as a collectible. Much like fine art, it is rather difficult for a non-expert to tell a fake from a real Picasso painting or a real bottle of Inglenook 1941 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. And even the expert will need to do some close studying. I don't know anything about collectible wine, but it seems pretty easy to fake. A fraudulent bottle of Pinot Noir that has been cut with cheaper wines like Merlot, would probably pass for Pinot most of the time. And when you enter the high-stakes world of collectible and cult wines, fraud seems all the more likely.

The thing is, the collector of rare bottles of wine, like Chateau Lafite 1787, (the wine rumored to be once owned by Thomas Jefferson while in France - which was bought for $160,000 at auction)... is kind of asking for a scam. But I ask, are collectors buying a bottle like this, (or a bottle of 1992 Screaming Eagle), for the wine, or for the prestige attached to it? Are they simply adding it as a prize, like a rare stamp to a stamp collection, or are they really interested in the wine itself?

My thought is that fraud or not, until somebody tells the buyer otherwise, they've got the real deal. If you bought the Chateau Lafite 1787, then you own Jefferson's wine until somebody can tell you different. That comes with all the bragging rights and prestige the buyer thinks it has. If that's all the collector wants, and doesn't necessarily care about the bottle's contents, then they deserve it. But that same buyer looking only to raise his social capital also deserves it if he is scammed.

Check out these recent wine scams in the news:
Six arrested in Australian wine fraud - Decanter.com
Charges brought in Pinot Noir-Red Bicyclette scandal - Decanter.com