You’d better check the capsules of any recent purchases you’ve made of back vintages of Penfolds’ St Henri. Why? Because in yet another counterfeit story involving Penfolds wines, a Sydney man was arrested on Friday 28th January in connection with a new counterfeit scam involving three vintages of St. Henri wine, being 1984, 1990 and 1992. As you can tell by the accompanying photo, it was another amateurish attempt at substitution, because bottles of Penfolds Rawsons Retreat were relabelled as St Henri, without even the proper Penfolds-embossed capsule being applied. The labels smudge easily and the bottle is clearly of smaller and inferior glass to St Henri’s usual package, irrespective of what you may have found the contents to be. Furthermore, the counterfeit wine has several printing discrepancies on the label and the wrong manufacturer number on the bottle. The counterfeits were sold or placed on consignment through auction houses, including one Internet specialist. At this stage it is not known how many counterfeit bottles were produced but a large amount has already been recovered. Perhaps this information might be forthcoming from the individual charged with the crime, who was apprehended within a week of the counterfeit bottles being discovered by staff at Vintage Cellars’ Double Bay store. On hearing of the fake St Henri a Melbourne wine collector recently asked to compare a fake bottle with those he had in his own cellar – only to discover that his were fakes too! Oh dear!!
