More than a third of vintage Scotch whiskies found to be fake

Sign up to IndyEat's free newsletter for weekly recipes, foodie features and cookbook releases Get our food and drink newsletter for free Get our food and drink newsletter for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Rare whiskies found to be among the fakes include a bottle of Ardbeg 1885 acquired from a private owner and a bottle of rare Thorne’s Heritage early-20th century blended whisky purchased from an auctioneer. Professor Gordon Cook, head of the Suerc Radiocarbon Laboratory, said: “It is disappointing to see the large percentage of vintage whiskies that turn out to be fake.” open image in gallery Three ‘rare’ bottles of single malt proven to be bogus As a result of the findings, RW101 estimated that approximately £41m worth of rare whisky currently in the secondary market, and in existing collections, is fake. David Robertson, co-founder of RW101, said that every purported rare whisky bottle should be “assumed fake until proven genuine, certainly if the bottle claims to be a single malt Scotch whisky”. His co-founder, Andy Simpson, said that while the “vast majority” of whisky vendors aren’t knowingly selling fake whisky, he believes the “exploding demand for rare whisky is inevitably attracting rogue elements to the sector”.