Whiskies Withdrawn from Bonhams Auction Over Authenticity Concerns

At the 11th hour, Bonhams withdrew 20 bottles of scotch from auction over fake whisky suspicions. The bottles, mainly Islay single malts and Macallan with an estimated value of $52,000–$72,000, were scheduled to go under the hammer in the Bonhams Fine Whisky & Spirits sale in Paris today. This shortened the online sale considerably, leaving only 24 lots of whisky approved for sale, valued at $38,000–$53,000, along with a selection of chartreuse, cognac, armagnac, and rhum agricole.

The withdrawn whiskies included Silver Seal bottlings of North Port 1976 26 year old, Ardbeg 1972 28 year old, Port Ellen 1982 21 year old, Laphroaig 1990 20 year old, St. Magdalene 1982 27 year old, Macallan 1979 25 year old, and Pluscarden 1969 40 year old distilled at Miltonduff Distillery. There were bottles of Macallan 15 year old produced in 1954 and 1957, and a Gordon & MacPhail Macallan 1937 34 year old. The remainder included Cadenhead bottlings of Ardbeg 24 year old, Laphroaig 21 year old, and Clynelish 1966 23 year old (now called Brora Distillery), an Ainslie & Heilbron bottling of Clynelish 12 year old, a Charles Mackinlay bottling of Glen Mhor 10 year old, a Moon Imports “The Birds” Miltonduff 1974, a Berry Bros. & Rudd Talisker 1937, and bottlings of Laphroaig 10 year old, Port Ellen 15 year old, and Longrow 1973. Many of the bottles bore Italian import labels and tax strips, while the Talisker 1937 was imported by The Buckingham Corporation of New York and sported a U.S. Internal Revenue tax strip.

“After a thorough investigation, we have serious concerns about the authenticity of some of these bottles,” Clément Gaillard, whisky specialist for Bonhams in Europe told Whisky Advocate. “They are all from the same seller and we have decided to withdraw everything from this person as a precaution. We do our best to avoid putting fake or dubious bottles on sale.”

Whisky auction specialists are on the front line to stop fake whiskies from making it through to the secondary market. Galliard’s expertise and vigilance in preventing potentially fake whiskies from being sold and landing in whisky collections is to be commended. Though not open for bidding, the withdrawn whiskies remained pictured in the online sale catalog, serving as a helpful reference for collectors and auctioneers alike. This reduces the possibility that the same 20 bottles could be offered to another auction house or the collection dispersed to avoid scrutiny.

The whisky industry uses layers of covert and overt security measures to combat counterfeiting in new whiskies, and auction houses communicate with each other to reject fake whiskies from their sales, but the high value and lower levels of anti-counterfeiting measures on older whiskies make them a more attractive target for forgers. Galliard did not disclose the specific bottles in the collection or the exact signs that aroused his suspicions: this is done to avoid giving counterfeiters any advantage.