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Confronta vini
Counterfeit wine is a documented problem at the top of the market — where a single bottle can be worth tens of thousands of dollars and where verification is hard. The Kurniawan case showed fakes passing through major auction houses; producers have since added tags, engraving and registers. The practical defence is provenance.
What gets faked
The wines with the highest value per bottle and the longest history: DRC, Pétrus, old Lafite, Mouton and Latour, top Burgundy domaines. Old vintages are easiest to fake because few people know what they should taste like and labels can be reproduced.
Producer responses
Proof tags with unique codes, laser-engraved bottles, tamper-evident capsules, and in some cases blockchain registers of every bottle released. These help with recent vintages; they do nothing for a 1961.
What a buyer can check
Provenance above all: where has the bottle been, in whose records, since release. Condition consistent with age. A seller who can answer questions. Corkonomics records seller, location and condition on any price observation it holds for this reason: wide price dispersion between sellers is one symptom of a market where authenticity is uncertain.