ruckus picked up the bottle for me from the seller's, brought it home and did some research (he is a bit of a geek too, and I suspect he wanted to find out the market rate). He warned me of the oddities he had spotted, for example the fact that the label was not smoothly glued to the glass and had some creases -- something I had noticed on the pictures the seller gave me, but that I had attributed to the Scots' occasional lack of attention to detail regarding what many north of the border still see as nothing more than a bottle of booze.
The other things were more difficult to spot on a collection of imperfect photographs. We discussed on the phone and decided we would look into it a couple of days later, when meeting at dom666's. The reason is simple: dom666 has that bottle. He bought it in 2006, when it came out, opened it immediately (as he does) and shared it (as he does). The authenticity of dom666's bottle suffers absolutely no doubt. With a side-by-side comparison, ruckus and I were confident we could put our suspicions to bed... or start crying.
As it turns out, I was about to start crying indeed.
In green, bottle #652, dom666's bottle, 100% genuine.
In red, bottle #554, my recently-acquired bottle, under scrutiny.
 |
| The shoulder label on #554 is creased |
 |
| Front label of #554. Too much glue, too generously applied |
|
|
 |
| Front label on #554 has a different font for "70cl e" (and a rogue space between "70" and "cl"). The paper is also a different grain |
 |
| The font is different in many places. The position of the text is different. #652's "49.7%" has become "49,7%" on #554 |
|
|
 |
| Text position and font differ between #652 and #554 |
 |
| The back labels have rounded corners on #652, square on #554 |
 |
| Bottom corners of the back labels differ too -- rounded vs. square |
|
|
 |
| Even the back-label's Grüne Punkt logos differ. Most importantly, this shot shows the difference in colours. On the right, #652 has spent 31 years in sherry casks and is accordingly dark. On the left, #554 is clearly not the same juice: the bottle is full, yet see-through |
No confusion possible: bottle #554 was a fake.
If I were to venture a guess, I would say it is a 10yo Laphroaig with doctored labels. The neck/stopper seal is probably the most difficult part to believably counterfeit, and the 31yo has the same seal as the 10yo.
I spoke to the seller that very night and let him know. He was surprised and not a little annoyed at the discovery, having paid a hefty sum himself to buy it from a seller he trusted -- who, it turned out, would not accept that the bottle is a fake, despite the incriminating evidence above.
I was very fortunate that my seller agreed to take the bottle back and reimburse me, thereby avoiding complications on my end. All it cost me in the end is time, the embarrassment of sending a friend on an errand for no positive outcome, a lot of stress and a disappointment. The whole thing could have been much more unpleasant, had the seller not accepted his responsibility as a seller.
I do hope he gets compensation for his loss as well.
The morale of the story is this: whisky, in 2019, generated loads of money. It will probably go on in 2020. That attracts lots of people who want a piece of the action. Some will buy and hoard, some will buy and swap, some will buy and sell, some will make and sell counterfeits for those who are so keen to buy.
My point is not that everyone is out to rip you off. My point is that, in their quest for a return on investment, some will buy and sell things they do not fully understand. They will buy and sell things for large sums of money without being able to assess their authenticity.
Sometimes, the counterfeit is of such quality that it takes an expert to spot it. Sometimes, the counterfeit is vulgar, but the buyer lets their guard down, excited to find a bargain. Sometimes, an expert will overlook a fake bottle and mistakenly file it under the not-worth-counterfeiting category. Example: another fake once went through tOMoH's shelves, after being bought from a respectable auction house: a 30yo Strathisla bottled by Gordon & MacPhail, on which the label had obviously suffered a bit from rogue glue, and at the bottom of which the glass read: "Product of Barbados."
Ahem.
I have no advice to give, here. I feel simply obliged to call for attention and care -- nay! vigilance, when buying a bottle, especially an expensive one. Fakes do exist. And they do not only affect others.
Right. You will remember I vowed to never post anything without a tasting note, so here it is. It will not be the Laphroaig 31yo Sherry OB for La Maison du Whisky, as I do not have it. Let us have another Laphroaig for La Maison du Whisky from a Sherry cask.
Laphroaig 15yo 1998/2014 (61.6%, Signatory Vintage for La Maison du Whisky, Sherry Butt, C#700356, 554b): nose: obviously a peaty-sherry profile, with ash, petrol, lamp oil and pressed raisins. I suppose others would find it medicinal -- and indeed, it has a bit of germoline and iodine, -- but it mostly has oilskins, in my opinion. Oilskins left to bake in the summer sun for a little too long, rubbery and crackly, dusty computer cables from a forgotten 1990s box of tricks. The third sniff sees a touch of pencil erasers, watercolour and earthy tones that grow and grow; we are talking about mudflats and bogs, moss water and fresh peat. Although powerful at first sniff, the sherry influence takes a back seat rather quickly. After the first sip, the nose seems much dryer, with smoked-hard-cheese rind, burnt cherry stones and scorched earth. Mouth: woah! It is huge. Burning embers, white-hot metal, with a generous dose of exhaust fumes too. Soon, however, the sherry maturation becomes obvious again, with drinks cabinets and fortified wines aplenty (PX, Port, Madeira). Chilli-infused chocolate sauce... It does remind me of a Mexican recipe for chocolate-sauce chicken, so it would be tomato, cocoa powder and habañero chilli, maybe a couple of sultanas, thrown in for balance and burning Virginia tobacco. The chocolate note comes back, with dark pralines and chocolate-coated almonds. Finish: more subtle in the finish than the palate might have suggested, it is by no stretch of the imagination a shy whisky. Coal, chimney-sweep broom, peat reek, smoked-crab shell, smoked almonds, Brazil-nut oil and apple smoked cheese. The second sip feels softer, sweeter, with soaked raisins (soaked in mud, that is!), fresh peat, celeriac, earthy roots and all, moist tree-bark chips and smoked chocolate -- chocolate-coated smoked almonds, maybe? Well, it is not the 31yo (few things are), but it is a perfectly good dram, this! 8/10 (Thanks for the sample, OB)
No comments:
Post a Comment