Let The Drink Talk

[talisker25]

Collectors warned over fake Scotch

DRAM CHEEK!
By Euan Duguid

ITALIAN conmen are endangering the reputation of Scotland’s greatest export with batches of counterfeit whisky.
The fake single malts were produced in Italy during the mid-1990s, but purport to date as far back as the 19th Century.
The cunning network legally bought antique labels and bottles at auction but filled them with cheap whisky.
Rocked
The forgeries are so good that the industry was rocked after Speyside distillers Macallan discovered some old whiskies in their museum, bought in good faith between 2000 and 2002, were fake.
It emerged after tests that the spirit inside some of the bottles was as young as 10 years old.
Rare whiskies can now fetch tens of thousands of pounds a bottle and the discovery came as a warning that sophisticated fakes posed a problem, even for expert collectors.
But whisky forgeries —some thought to have originated from the same gang — are still found for sale on Internet auction sites today.
Fake
Just last month 20 bottles of fake whisky, aimed at collectors, were being sold by a German trader on eBay.
Not all forgers are meticulous and the website maltmadness.com lists scores of shoddy fakes that have been detected, including an Isle of Arran “bottled in 1982”.
Arran distillery didn’t open until 1995.
Whisky gurus are urging buyers to beware of imitations.
Richard Paterson, Master Blender for Whyte & Mackay, explained that substandard products do not easily fool connoisseurs, but stressed, “As far as I’m concerned the integrity of the label is sacrosanct.
Jungle juice



David Broom has been monitoring counterfeit whiskies for five years. The website www.maltmadness.com has a page dedicated to exposing fake malts. Here are just a few bogus bottles they have unearthed (from left) — “Glen Albyn 10-year-old”, the infamous “Arran 1982”, “Laphroaig 1991 Highgrove” and the “1954 Macallan”.

“Whisky must be of a high standard and I don’t put anything in my blends or single malts unless I’m fully satisfied.
“However, if the counterfeiters are putting any old jungle juice into bottles, that’s really going to erode the reputation of Scotch whisky.
“I would urge anyone who suspects a product to be faked to report it to the whisky producer so we can carry out a detailed analysis.”
David Broom, contributing editor to Whisky Magazine, began monitoring whisky forgeries around five years ago and was first to raise concerns regarding The Macallan collection.
He explained, “I was alerted to counterfeit whisky in the late 1990s after several distillers and retailers had been approached by individuals who offered some remarkable bottles of whisky which had never been seen before.
Traced
“Since then several fake whiskies, including the bottles bought by Macallan, have been traced back to Italy.
“There’s also evidence of rare bottle and label collections being bought by Italians.”
Mr Broom added, “Last year I identified 20 bottles being sold on eBay by a trader in Germany.
“When I pressed him to explain their origins he quickly removed them from sale.”
Emrys Inker, spokesman for Macallan, said, “Although we were first to have the validity of the whisky tested, we know other Scotch whisky brands had been affected by similar scams in the past.
“Prospective buyers of rare malt should authenticate the validity of the bottle and spirit and also confirm the credentials of the people selling.”
David Williamson of the Scotch Whisky Association explained, “We have a network of lawyers around the world working to protect Scotch whisky and consumers from such activities.
“Distillers also go to considerable lengths to protect their brands.
“Suspect samples are, for example, routinely analysed and illegitimate traders are prosecuted.”

http://www.dcthomson.co.uk/mags/post/news4.htm
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i've been on a whisky diet, i've lost 3 days already

The trouble with jogging is that ice falls out of your glass

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[Old Faithful]

Thanks Talisker, that's an interesting article. It just goes to show, you can't always go by the label on a bottle!! It's a sad world we live in now where nothing escapes the clutches of an evil minority, who see that their purpose in life is to prey & get rich on the good nature of people!

[Johnny]

[talisker25]

[Johnny]