Fake Factor

While at Savour Australia, I was given a copy of Fine Wine and Champagne, published in India by Fine Publishing India (www.fine-magazines.in).  Its luxurious presentation is similar to many of those that you see out of China and Hong Kong, but some of the content is decidedly interesting and unusual.  The editor is Rajiv Singhal, and he has some very interesting contributors.  There are tasting notes and profiles of 100 wines from many parts of the world, and each has a summary covering price, bottle condition, tasting note, how many times tasted, decanting time, etc, etc, but my eye then caught the next item, ‘Fake Factor’.  It varies from comments such as ‘None yet, but in near future – yes’, or, in the case of items such as a 1956 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon ‘None’.  

It was decidedly ironical that the Fake Factor for 1955 Romanée-Conti should be described as ‘Huge – especially among big-sized bottling, and as you can buy original Domaine labels from eBay at a modest price of 500 euros, it will be hard to tell without opening the bottles if it is the real thing...’  There was a photograph of the said Romanée-Conti opposite its taste rundown, and the bottle number was written in hand (331).  Quite apart from the clearly faked bottle number, the label itself seemed to have done hard yards, not surprising.  And before I get off the subject (and the magazine) my eye also caught 1960 DRC La Tache.  Here the Fake Factor was ‘None’, with the added quotes ‘Inside information a very bad vintage throughout France, but not at DRC’.  Here, too, the label seemed to have done hard yards and it was not possible to see the label clearly enough to tell whether the bottle number was hand written or printed.