Is your rare whiskey a fake?

A friend sent me this article wondering if his expensive bottle of scotch is any good. After reading this, I told him that it's most likely he'll never really know. Lots of whiskey threads here so I thought it was info good enough to share. SIAP.

"A word of warning if you plan to celebrate the holidays by sipping on vintage Scotch whisky: There's a solid chance the stuff you have is fake. Advanced lab tests on 55 bottles of rare scotch nabbed from auctions, private collections, and retailers revealed 21 were outright fakes or carried the wrong year on the label.The tests were commissioned by Rare Whisky 101, a broker acknowledging "growing concern surrounding the proliferation of fake whisky" sold as vintage. It estimates almost $52 million worth of rare whisky in the secondary market is fake.

While "the vast majority" of vendors aren't selling fake scotch on purpose, RW101 co-founder David Robertson says every rare whisky "should be assumed to be fake until proven genuine," especially the claim is that it's a single malt. The tests showed 10 single malts said to date from 1900 or earlier were fake. Had the 21 fake bottles—including an Ardbeg 1885 and a Thorne's Heritage early 20th-century blend—been genuine, they would've been valued at $800,000, says Robertson. Per the BBC, his company last year proved a shot of Scotch whisky sold in a Swiss hotel bar was fake, and therefore insanely overpriced at $10,050."

How to Tell if Your Rare Whiskey is a Fake