Faux Wine

Counterfeit wine has been a hot topic this year, and it looks like people just keep getting burned. Wine Spectator has an article up today on the ongoing battle against faux wine. The piece focuses on a collector named Russell Frye who found out just before selling his cellar at Sotheby's that about 3 million dollars worth of high-end bordeaux's were not authentic. He still managed to sell the rest of the collection for just under $8 million, but still - a hit like that has got to sting.

The article then goes onto talk about the growing problem, as well as a number of precautions and technologies being developed to possibly prevent it in the future. From Wine Spectator,

"While it's hard to determine the extent of wine counterfeiting, collectors, wineries and retailers are concerned. In April, auction house Acker, Merrall & Condit pulled 22 lots of Burgundy supposedly from Domaine Ponsot after proprietor Laurent Ponsot said he believed the bottles were fakes. In September, Italy's Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry reported that police had seized 30,000 bottles of red wine fallaciously labeled as Amarone at the port of Livorno. The wines were destined for the United States."

It's a fascinating look at a major insider issue and how industry heads are attempting to deal with it. Follow the link for the full text.