How To Spot Fake Wines

Just as there exist many brands of wine around the world today, there also exist numerous fake wine brands. Not only can these fake wine brands make you lose your money, but they can also cause several health complications when consumed.

So, what necessary steps should you take to detect counterfeit wines in the market today?

Here are some of them.

1. Beware of unicorn wines

The first step is to always check if the wine in question actually does exist. Sometimes, fake wine manufacturers create “unicorn wines” – wines that never existed. For example, this was how Burgundy’s Emmanuel Ponsot caught out arch-counterfeiter Rudy “Dr. Conti” Kurniawan. During Kurniawan’s trial, Ponsot pointed out that a bottle of his Clos Saint-Denis 1945 found in Kurniawan’s possession ‘cannot exist’, as the appellation began production in 1982.

2. Check the label

A wine’s labels should demonstrate its authenticity. Although fake wine manufacturers can ‘forensically age’ labels using dyes or even coffee, there are other things that can easily give fake wines away. Check for incoherent, ambiguous colouring on the labels. Sometimes the labelling mistakes can be hard to spot, such as misplacing the AOC for a particular wine or period. Some other times, the mistakes can be quite obvious, such as spelling errors.

3. Read the small print

Most reputable wine labels use a plate press for their label inscriptions, so look closely for the colour separation. On the label, the manufacture date must be stamped separately from the other information. Blurry fonts, with typos or defective printing, is a huge red flag.

4. Watch the bottles and corks

Older hand-blown glass bottles from the 19th century are not perfectly smooth. They tend to wobble on a flat surface. Post-1930, French bottles should have their volume embossed somewhere on the glass. More recent bottles also feature a ‘recyclable’ mark. Corks that have been tampered with are a tell-tale sign that a bottle has been refilled.

To avoid causing harm to your health or getting swindled of your money for fake products, it's best to buy your wine directly from the only trusted wine supplier in Nigeria Drinks.ng. Drinks.ng offers authentic wine products sourced directly from the brands themselves, this is a measure to ensure the authenticity of the wines you are getting.