Asian grapevine
Earlier this year, a British lawyer investigating the issue of counterfeit wines in China insisted on meeting me about a 'highly confidential case' on which he wanted my advice. I was so intrigued when he described the proof he had gathered from his trips to the mainland that I agreed to meet him for coffee. I was shown photographs of many examples of fake wines. Some labels and bottles were a credible tribute to the real brands, but many were very poor copies with missing letters and wine information.
On his recent trip to the mainland, he pretended to be a customer who wanted to bottle a 1,000-case lot of wine. He visited bottling companies and wine-making firms in three provinces there. He discovered that not only was it possible to bottle wines of any variety he desired but they also were equally flexible about the wine labels. One bottling company supposedly asked him, 'You sure you don't want a Chateau Lafite label? It costs you more, but it will sell well.'
One could choose wine from a wide variety of 'origins' such as China, Chile, Italy, France or Spain. Each came with a different price tag. The choices for wine bottle selection were also equally wide.
'We would like your expert advice on the authenticity of some wines,' the lawyer said to me. 'Some are so well replicated on the outside that we need an expert like you to sample these wines and taste them against the originals to verify that the wines are indeed fake.'
He wanted to gather evidence for his European winery clients to take the case to court.
I felt a little guilty knowing that I had agreed to meet with him purely out of curiosity, without any intention of getting involved in something this politically sensitive. It is possible that some of the companies that produce these 'order by number' wines have connections to regional or provincial governments, and it is never a good idea to get involved in undermining the Chinese authorities. I declined his offer to be hired as a consultant.
The problem with fake wines is escalating, according to Don St Pierre Jnr of ASC and Ian Ford of Summergate, the heads of two of the largest wine importing companies on the mainland. St Pierre points out that over the past five years, as regulations on establishing a wine importing company in China have relaxed and Hong Kong's wine duty elimination has created a pricing gap between the two regions, smuggling and fraudulent wine sales have increased.
Fakes come in many guises: at the simplest level, the wine in the bottle is not what it states on the label; perhaps the wine is not all from China or France, or it isn't from the chateau that is stated on the label. At a more complex level, the bottle may be refilled with wine from a lesser-known property or from a less good vintage from the stated property, making it very difficult for the average consumer to tell the difference.
Like fake Louis Vuitton bags, there are various grades of fakes. The best ones are very difficult to differentiate, and the price tags often reflect this. Is it any surprise then that the going rate for empty bottles of prestigious wines is upwards of several hundred yuan?
Even in Hong Kong, many masters of wine and experienced fine wine professionals have whispered in my ear, confidentially, of course, that they have questioned the authenticity of many wines that they were served in Hong Kong.
Fake wines are clearly a serious issue on the mainland as well as in Hong Kong. However, before this concern is blown out of proportion, it is important to note that the concern about fake wines is centuries old. It was fraudulent wines that inspired Philippe de Rothschild of Chateau Mouton Rothschild to campaign for bottling at the chateau. Pierre Moreau, the director of Chateau Margaux in the 1920s, was also a supporter of this concept and helped to gather the owners of the four first growths, plus Mouton (not yet a first growth) and Yquem to begin chateau bottling.
Bottling at the chateau rather than by various merchants around the world was one measure against the unscrupulous merchants who sold fake wines in the 1920s. This 'Group of Six' took out adverts and organised many events to raise the profile of their estates.
The laws set out in the French appellation controlee system, giving certain properties and vineyards the right to use place names, are also the result of producers trying to protect themselves from the sale of fraudulent wines.
From the time that sought-after wines came into being, fakes probably existed in parallel. Opportunists can see that wine is a product with enormous bottle variation, and relatively few of us have the depth of experience to identify fakes. The growing fake market today - and not just on the mainland - is only a sign of wine's desirability and its success.
After all, imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery.
