The Wine Collector: Practical Wine Collecting Advice

The counterfeiting of any item is more likely when two conditions exist:

The item is substantially more valuable than the cost to fake it.
The identification of fakes is difficult or inherently subjective.

Unfortunately, fine wine easily satisfies both conditions. E.g. counterfeiters can refill empty authentic bottles or digitally print almost any label at low cost. Identification of fake wine is more of an art form using various clues instead of based on an objective assessment.

Authenticating fine wine - What matters

What ultimately matters is the wine itself - not the label, bottle, or capsule. Anti-fraud technologies which successfully authenticate the contents of the bottle such as Prooftag (see my prior post from 2007) are all that's needed. If the security seal isn't broken, then the bottle has to be authentic. Other methods like adding DNA markers or invisible ink to labels, or engraving bottles, only help authenticate the bottles not the contents.

Step 1: Producers must enable objective authentication

Deploying a security seal like Prooftag's solution is a fundamental requirement to eliminating fake wine as it introduces an objective test which may be relied upon with 100% certainty. I'm not sure what the current cost of using a Prooftag solution is but I have seen a range of 30 cents to $1.50 per bottle in other articles (no doubt driven by the volume of tags). As a consumer, I would rather see a security tag on the bottle than buy fancy packaging like overweight, over-sized bottles if producers need to find a means of paying for it.

Step 2: Permit anyone to validate authenticity of bottles

Just as with identifying counterfeit currency, the only way to spot wine fakes is to cast a wide net by educating and empowering members of the trade and consumers on how to validate bottles. If the anti-counterfeiting technology is "non-forgeable" (as Prooftag claims), then disseminating information publicly is safe and does not "train" criminals in how to counterfeit the wine.

Without an objective test (as with older vintages pre-dating use of anti-counterfeiting measures), however, sharing information on how to identify authentic wines may be tantamount to publishing how to make a fake successfully. This is exactly why Step 1 should be adopted ASAP by any producer interested in preserving their brand's integrity and resale value in secondary markets.

Overt vs. covert systems

A September 2009 feature story in Wines & Vines titled New Ways to Fight Counterfeiters opens with the question of "Overt or covert?" Covert systems seem pointless - almost akin to creating laws without enforcing them. The only reason a system is covert is because of the fear (or reality) that a dedicated criminal could copy it.

Open systems like Prooftag's can be even more effective by providing members of the wine trade with access to automated "readers" to verify authentic bottles in an efficient manner. These readers should be provided at no charge to qualified fine wine retailers and auction houses willing to use them to help choke off any trading in fake wine.

Wine anti-counterfeiting standard needed

Various winery and producer trade organizations should endorse a common standard of anti-counterfeiting technology. If the industry adopts a multiplicity of approaches, enforcement will become near impossible as trade members would not only need to support all technologies but know which one was used by which producer and starting with what vintage. It's unworkable.

Bottom line: Stamping out wine counterfeiting starts with producers taking preventive measures. Assessing fakes without an objective capability to determine them is just educated guesswork at best. Consumers are exposed to financial loss, fine wine retailers and auction houses may get unfairly blamed or accused of complicity, and producers' reputations are at risk when consumers drink poor quality fakes and think it's the real thing.