Macallan

[SIO]

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Macallan duped by Italians in vintage dram scam

WILLIAM LYONS

IT IS regarded as one of the finest collections of antique whisky in the world. The centrepiece of Macallan?s whisky museum in Craigellachie, on Speyside, which has been valued in excess of £500,000, draws whisky enthusiasts from around the world.

However, it could now be attracting visitors for another reason - as an example of one of the largest whisky forgeries in the history of the industry.

The Scotsman has learned that far from being some of the oldest whisky in the world, the liquid inside the bottles is not Victorian at all but dates from the late 1980s.

After a year-long investigation by the Macallan board, during which sample bottles were sent to Oxford University for carbon-dating testing, it emerged that the liquid content inside the bottles is "modern", in some cases as young as ten years old.

David Cox, the director of fine and rare whiskies for Macallan, yesterday described the findings as a "huge disappointment" and said the revelation had ramifications "not just for the market in antique bottles of Scotch but for the drinks industry as a whole".

Mr Cox said: "Those perpetrating this fraud doubtless sought to cash in on the growth in appreciation of fine, single-malt whiskies. The fraud involved them acquiring genuine old empty bottles at antique markets and re-filling them to be passed off as the complete genuine article."

The Scotsman understands that most of the bottles were bought from Italy from private collectors and auctions. It is not known how much Macallan paid for the collection but industry sources believe it would be considerably more than the present value of the collection which, after the revelations, is as little as £10,000.

Mr Cox added: "I am confident that the people we bought them from are not in the refilling business, they are respectable people.

"Somewhere along the line, they have acquired bottles either through another party or directly through the people who refilled them.

"If we can gather sufficient evidence against the perpetrators of this scam then we would consider bringing criminal proceedings, but it is going to be extremely difficult to find sufficiently hard evidence to be able to bring criminal proceedings against them."

Antique bottles of whisky started to appear at auction in greater numbers around the mid-1990s. It was a trend that caused a lot of collectors to pause for thought, according to Charles Maclean, a whisky consultant for Bonhams auction house and author of Scotch Whisky: A Liquid History.

Mr Maclean said: "Many people inside the industry were surprised at the time that while in the past there may have been an occasional bottle appearing at auction, there suddenly appeared to be a constant stream of old and obscure bottles which nobody had seen before.

"If you wanted to forge whisky, Macallan is the one you would go for, because it is by far and away the most collected whisky.

"The finger generally points to Italy; it may be terribly unkind to say that, but the Italians are master forgers. From classical times with major pieces of artwork there is a long and heroic history of forgery. But this is very bad luck, as a good forgery is almost impossible to detect, especially if the forger is using original bottles and refilling."

Macallan says the antique collection - totalling approximately 100 bottles - will continue to be displayed at the distillery and there are no plans to investigate the possibility of criminal proceedings against the perpetrators.

A spokesman for the Scotch Whisky Association said: "Scotch?s worldwide success means that, from time to time, unscrupulous traders seek to take unfair advantage of its reputation for quality. The industry therefore devotes considerable resources each year to protect Scotch whisky from lookalike and counterfeit products. Distillers have well established authenticity testing procedures, as Macallan has demonstrated."

[Robert Reinsson]

...where there is money - there is scammers!! :evil:

Tråkigt, men jag tror att det förekommer på en hel del "gammal" whisky som är i omlopp. Tur att man inte har nått "Gammalt" :roll:

SIO, kanske vi skall blanda ihop ett parti... Näe, det ska vi inte :oops:

[Åke]

Tja, det hade väl kanske kvittat om det bara hade varit så att det hade varit de här museiföremålen som hade varit resultatet av en förfalskning. Men i förlängningen blir det ju så att alla de "Replicas" som Macallan lanserat och som imiterar smaken av de här förfalskningarna inte heller har någon autenticitet. Själv är jag inte så intresserad av Macallan, jag tycker priserna är för uppkörda och whiskyn för sherryinfluerad, så jag har inte provat några av de whiskies, som kan tänkas vara aktuella. Någon annan som kan avge några omdömen?

[Nattlorden]

Frågan är väl - är _samtliga_ flaskor förfalskningar, eller är där några äkta i gänget?

Okej... men flaskorna var äkta i alla fall... så då har man en replika på en gammal Macallanflaska... med Macallan i... vatted för att åstadkomma en falsk Macallan-smak?

Nåja... smakbetyget lär ju i all fall stå kvar.

[Jenz Rönnow]

Riktigt surt det där. Tänk att de gjort replikor på falska Macallan-flaskor. Någon där ute får ju dock ta åt sig lite beröm för de har ju lyckats med att få sin vatted malt ut på marknaden! :roll:

[MacNiels]

Back in October 2002, Dansk Maltwhisky Akademi borrowed a large number of old bottlings from Mr Andreas Jacobs ? many by independent bottler Thorne & Sons, and they were subsequently on display at the annual ?Wild Whisky Weekend? at Hotel Falster, Denmark.

Fake bottles from German trader Andreas Jacobs still seems to be on the EBay Market.

Brief story

As an investor group had been founded earlier that year, it was agreed upon to include some of the bottles in the investor groups collection. Before a final decision to buy was taken, Mr Martin Green, an independent whisky consultant, valued the bottles.( Mr Green is known from McTears Auctions, Glasgow for similar work).

They were all valued at GBP 2,000 and upwards (per bottle) and found to be in good condition. No doubts were raised about the authenticity of these bottles.

Early 2003, The Whisky Magazine brought an article ?Faking it? by Dave Broom ? questioning whether all the old bottlings on the market could be genuine. R. Thorne bottlings were mentioned ? but a final proof of foul play could not be delivered by Mr. Broom, even though he let us in no doubt, that he considered these bottlings to be fakes.

Read more:

http://www.whiskynyt.dk/modules.php?op=mod...order=0&thold=0

MacNiels

Whiskynyt.dk

[Jenz Rönnow]

Synd att det finns sådana här personer. De förstör för alla seriösa som försöker sälja whisky på eBay. Det gäller att vara extremt försiktig om man tänker köpa whisky från eBay. Det finns många nitlotter...

[mange]

Därför samlar jag bara på whiskykorkarna

[Benke Olsson]

Därför samlar jag bara på whiskykorkarna

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Med tanke på din "Tidiga vårstädning av källaren"

verkar det som om du samlade på "slattar" oxå .

[mange]

Med tanke på din "Tidiga vårstädning av källaren"

verkar det som om du samlade på "slattar" oxå    .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Jo, men det har inte varit meningen att samla på "slattarna", har haft ont om tid innan.

Håller ju på för fullt att rensa......