The sheer incompetence of those involved in the Counterfeit Grange scandal, which has set the Australian wine industry gently rocking with laughter, actually makes you wonder whether or not the criminal classes have had it too easy for too long. Either that or wine education downunder needs an overhaul, quick! Hawk-eyed Melbourne-based auctioneer Stuart Langton was first to cock an eyebrow at a six-bottled lot of what purported to be the very valuable 1990 Penfolds Grange, which now fetches a very respectable $350 on the Australian auction market. While the bar codes for the genuine 1990 Grange are red in colour, our intrepid counterfeiters mucked up badly and printed it in black! Showing similar form, they let through a couple of ripper typos which were no match for Langton. Instead of accurately reproducing the phrase ‘pour the wine’ on the back label, the would-be Granges suggest the user should ‘poor the wine’. If you’re going to counterfeit Australia’s international wine icon, can’t you do it better than that? At last count, Penfolds has found no less than ten packaging discrepancies in the fake wines. The company says it will redouble the energies it is directing towards ensuring the authenticity of all its premium reds. But the message is clear: if you are going to attempt to forge Australia’s most valuable wine, you might as well begin by getting it right.
