Beware of fake wines
In November 2017, Chinese authorities seized 14,000 bottles of counterfeit wines, labelled with the Australian brand Penfold’s, and arrested 13 people, following a complaint from Penfold’s parent company Treasury Wine Estates (TWE).
Rawson’s Retreat, Bin 128 and Grange were amongst the brands counterfeited and distributed via the giant Alibaba website Taobao. A genuine bottle of Grange from the Noughties usually costs several hundred dollars.
What raised TWE’s suspicions was that retailers were charging “extraordinarily low prices” for Penfold’s wines, with some going for as little as 200 yuan (USD 30) per bottle online, while they should retail for 600 to 3000 yuan (USD 90 to USD 450).
Counterfeit wine is a particularly pervasive problem in Asia with many premium wines smuggled into China through various illegal channels. Wine and spirit manufacturers exporting to China have adopted measures, such as the use of embossed bottles, hard to replicate labels and destroying bottles after tastings, in order to increase consumer confidence.
