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David Smith

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fake scotch is common

It has long been known that some rare Scotches (and wine – and minis!) were being faked but no
proper study has been done until now. Rare Whisky 101, who worked in partnership with Scottish
Universities Environmental Research Centre, examined and tested bottles of rare malts acquired
through various channels. This was occasioned by the price of a rare few Scotches going higher
than that of gold, kilo for kilo.
55 bottles in total were tested and 21 were confirmed as counterfeits. That’s 38%! If sold on the
open market as genuine they were estimated to be worth £635,000. If this percentage holds up
worldwide then the value of those fakes would be £41m. Not a good investment and nobody but a
multi-billionaire is going to drink any of these Scotches at the prices they are now selling for.

It gets worse. Rare whisky 101, a dealer, has had tested every bottle of pre-1900 Scotches they
have been asked to handle in recent years – ALL were fakes.

By no means every seller is crooked, although there are undoubtedly some out there that are. Most
sellers will have bought their bottles in good faith and will be merely trying to trade-up or cash-out
their bottles. Thankfully most high end Scotch collectors can probably afford the loss, although
inevitably there will be a few for whom their nest egg gets wiped out.
Apart from a careful examination of the bottle, capping and label the main tool used to assess dates
is now radio carbon dating. C14 (radiocarbon) is produced at a constant rate in the upper
atmosphere and decays at a known rate. However, the nuclear testing in the 1950’s considerably
increased the level from the normal background level. Any whisky that reflects this increase has to
have been made after about 1950. The process used is able to pinpoint the distillation year(s) to
within a two to three year period if the whisky is post 1950. For samples pre-dating the 1950’s the
technique provides a wider date band but it will certainly tell the difference on a decade basis.

David Smith

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