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late 19 century and owned both The Macallan and Talisker Distilleries but,
importantly, never at the same time.

The manager of the hotel, Sandro Bernasconi, whose father built a large Scotch
collection that is the basis of the hotel’s famous whisky bar, has expressed dismay at
the news and promised to send the whisky for verification and refund the buyer of
the dram if the bottle did prove to be counterfeit.

Scotch whisky consultancy firm Rare Whisky 101 subsequently carried out a number
of scientific and forensic tests on the bottle and its liquid and have concluded it is
indeed a fake.

A sample sent to the University of Oxford’s Research Laboratory for Archaeology
and The History of Art suggested, with a 95% probability, that the liquid had been
made between 1970 to 1972, whilst further tests carried out by Tatlock and Thomson
showed the spirit was likely a blend of 60% malt and 40% grain whisky.

Rare Whisky 101 co-founder, David Robertson, commented: “The Waldhaus team
have done exactly the right thing by trying to authenticate this whisky. Over the past
year, we have been invited by numerous bottle owners and auction houses to
assess suspicious bottles. Indeed, we’ve noticed an increasing number of old, rare
archive or antique bottles coming to market at auction, and it’s difficult to know how
prevalent this problem is.

“We would implore that others in the market do what they can to identify any rogue
bottles. The more intelligence we can provide, the greater the chance we have to
defeat the fakers and fraudsters who seek to dupe the unsuspecting rare whisky
consumer. We’re also working closely with The Macallan brand owner, Edrington, as
they start to take a leadership position on fake whisky.”

Bernasconi added: “When it comes to selling our customers some of the world’s
rarest and oldest whiskies, we felt it was our duty to ensure that our stock is 100%
authentic and the real deal. That’s why we called in Rare Whisky 101. The result has
been a big shock to the system, and we are delighted to have repaid our customer in
full as a gesture of goodwill.”

Fake bottles of spirits and wine turn up on a regular basis. And doubtless there are
thousands, unsuspected, in collections. A newsletter I get daily reports fakes on a
regular basis and just this morning one of the stories was: “Police in Shanghai have
arrested 13 people after discovering 14,000 bottles of fake Penfolds destined to be
sold through Alibaba's Taobao – China's version of eBay – as well as pubs and
karaoke bars.”

Mini Bottle Collectors, especially those who’s collections are at the top end of the
market with Scotches, Pre-pro Bourbons and Cognac, should be very wary. We
already know for certain of a number of fake ceramic bottles (including the Vlahof
1960 Rome Olympic bottles which are worth more than the originals) and doubtless
there are fake straights out there.

David Smith

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