6 tips for you to easily identify fake red wine!

The topic of “real wine or fake wine” has arisen as the times require since red wine entered China.

Pigment, alcohol, and water are mixed together, and a bottle of blended red wine is born. The profit of a few cents can be sold to hundreds of yuan, which hurts ordinary consumers. It is really infuriating.

The biggest problem for friends who like wine when buying wine is that they don’t know whether it is real wine or fake wine, because the wine is sealed and cannot be tasted in person; the wine labels are all in foreign languages, so they can’t understand; ask the shopping guide Well, I’m afraid that what they say is not the truth, and they are easy to be fooled.

So today, the editor will talk to you about how to identify the authenticity of wine by looking at the information on the bottle. Absolutely let you no longer be deceived.

When distinguishing the authenticity of wine from the appearance, it is mainly distinguished from six aspects: “certificate, label, barcode, unit of measurement, wine cap, and wine stopper”.

Certificate

Since imported wine is an imported product, there must be several evidences to show your identity when entering China, just like we need a passport to go abroad. These evidences are also “wine passports”, which include: import and export declarations Documents, health and quarantine certificates, certificates of origin.

When buying wine you can ask to see the above certificates, if they don’t show you, then be careful, it is probably fake wine.

Label

There are three types of wine labels, namely wine cap, front label, and back label (as shown in the figure below).

The information on the front mark and the wine cap should be clear and unmistakable, without shadows or printing.

The back label is quite special, let me focus on this point:

According to national regulations, foreign red wine products must have a Chinese back label after entering China. If the Chinese back label is not posted, it cannot be sold in the market.

The content of the back label should be displayed accurately, generally marked with: ingredients, grape variety, type, alcohol content, manufacturer, filling date, importer and other information.

If some of the above information is not marked, or there is no back label directly. Then consider the credibility of this wine. Unless it is a special case, wines such as Lafite and Romanti-Conti generally do not have Chinese back labels.

bar code

The beginning of the barcode marks its place of origin, and the most commonly used barcodes begin as follows:

69 for China

3 for France

80-83 for Italy

84 for Spain

When you buy a bottle of red wine, look at the beginning of the barcode, you can clearly know its origin.

unit of measurement

Most French wines use the measurement unit of cl, called centiliters.

1cl=10ml, these are two different expressions.

However, some wineries also adopt a way that is in line with international standards for labeling. For example, the standard bottle of Lafite wine is 75cl, but the small bottle is 375ml, and in recent years, the Grand Lafite has also begun to use ml for labeling; while the wines of Latour Chateau are all marked in milliliters.

Therefore, both of the capacity identification methods on the front label of the wine bottle are normal. (The younger brother said that all French wines are cl, which is wrong, so here is a special explanation.)
But if it is a bottle of wine from another country with the cl logo, be careful!

wine cap

The wine cap imported from the original bottle can be rotated (some wine caps are not rotatable and there may be problems of wine leakage). Also, the production date will be marked on the wine cap

unit of measurement

Most French wines use the measurement unit of cl, called centiliters.

1cl=10ml, these are two different expressions.

However, some wineries also adopt a way that is in line with international standards for labeling. For example, the standard bottle of Lafite wine is 75cl, but the small bottle is 375ml, and in recent years, the Grand Lafite has also begun to use ml for labeling; while the wines of Latour Chateau are all marked in milliliters.

wine cap

The wine cap imported from the original bottle can be rotated (some wine caps are not rotatable and there may be problems of wine leakage). Also, the Wine stopper

Don’t throw away the cork after opening the bottle. Check the cork with the sign on the wine label. The cork of imported wine is usually printed with the same letters as the original label of the winery.production date will be marked on the wine cap

If the name of the winery on the cork is not the same as the name of the winery on the original label, then be careful, it may be fake wine.

 


Post time: Jan-29-2023