Fake wines and forgeries

The wine business is in no way safe from fraud or fakes. You may remember the recent scandal when a wine producer in the south of France sold large quantities of pinot noir wine to an American customer. The problem was that he sold much more than what was made in the appellation… Or the Brunello wines that were suspected of containing grape varieties that were not allowed. And so on. Mike Veseth writes on his blog The Wine Economist about another type of fraud: someone who filled an empty bottle of chateau Mouton Rothschild 1982 (bough, full, for this purpose) with some other wine and included it in a blind tasting with “other” cru classé wines. Not surprisingly (really!) it was highly rated and some of the tasters even insisted it was the best wine in the tasting. Interesting story. Read about it and about other fake wines on the Wine Economist! The Wine Economist.