Believe it or not, there are actually many people (and even illegal organizations) out there in the world who produce fraudulent bottles of wine. These counterfeiters try to reproduce a bottle of expensive or rare wine, and then pass it off as an original for money at stores or auctions. Just like how there are counterfeit paintings, some of these wine bottle are extremely difficult to detect as fake before it’s too late. Luckily a website is about to launch that will help the average wine connoisseur detect if their bottle of wine is real or not.
Wine counterfeiter’s like Rudy Kurniawan (who’s behind bars) are getting increasingly good at what they do: make fake bottles of wine and then con people into believing they are rare and valuable. Still even if wine counterfeiter’s are caught, their fraudulent products can still be out there. Luckily wine consultant and savant, Maureen Downey, who has helped the FBI track down counterfeiters is about to launch the website “Winefraud.com” sometime in April.
Downey makes a great point in saying that there really aren’t any ways to teach people about detecting fake bottles and that’s the goal of this website. Winefraud.com will have a variety of different tutorials, galleries, and tests that help people learn exactly how to spot a counterfeit.
Counterfeit wine is actually a pretty big deal, and there are many fakes out there. Downey estimated that Rudy Kurniawan alone flooded the market with around $130 million dollars worth of bottles, and he’s just one man. Some of those bottles are still out there, and there are many others like Kurniawan. Downey has established a massive database and gallery of information and photos to help spot all different kinds of fake bottles to combat this issue.
This website is a welcomed service that will help people off all types discern fake and counterfeit wine bottles. I wasn’t even aware this was an issue, but apparently it is a lot larger than most people (including me) think. Downey has put a lot of work into the website and it will be great to see when it finally goes live.
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