All Chateau Lafite Wine Bottles to Carry Prooftag.
June 16, 2012
Chateau Lafite Rothschild have stated to the Decanter magazine that all bottles of its wine from the 2009 vintage onwards will use Prooftag anti-fraud seals.
Prooftag is a capsule seal with a 13-numbered code which can be authenticated on its website.
Also, in an effort to decrease the amount of wine fraud, Chateau Lafite is also engaging directly with Chinese consumers, and has opened up an account on Weibo, known as the Chinese twitter.
The problem of fraud is especially rampant in China. It’s estimated that Chinese buyers have a one in two chance of being sold a fake bottle of Chateau Lafite.
The Prooftag received accreditation from the Chinese authorities 18 months ago, and is reportedly also being used by some government agencies for the delivery of confidential documents.
Prooftag marketing director Franck Bourrières told Decanter, ‘No one knows the exact size of the problem with counterfeit wine. But we do know that the problem exists. This is a welcome signal from Lafite that they are working with merchants and final consumers to combat it.’
Other noteworthy wineries that have adopted the Prooftag include:Chateau Ausone, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Latour, and Chateau Montelena in California.
Click here for the full article from Decanter.
My Thoughts…
It’s quite surprising that this has taken so long to put in motion by Lafite, especially considering that they’re probably one of the most counterfeited!
Wine counterfeiting seems to be on the rise, and this is certainly a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t really do much for anyone with Lafite bottles prior to 2009 in their collection…..…better pop it open and invite me round for dinner! I’ll tell you if it’s fake or not…after finishing the bottle…
