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A MEASURE OF Macallan whisky purportedly made in 1878 that a Chinese man paid $10,000 for at a Swiss hotel was actually distilled between 1970 and 1972, local media reported Friday.
In August, the young customer entered the Devil’s Place Whisky Bar at the luxury Waldhaus Hotel in St. Moritz, northeast Switzerland, and expressed particular interest in rare Macallans.
The bar, which has a whiskey collection honoured in the Guinness Book of World Records, had 47 options, ranging from seven Swiss francs to ten grand per glass.
The customer chose the bottle marked as an 1878 vintage, which went for 9,999 Swiss francs (€8,500) for a two-centilitre measure.
Whiskey experts were not convinced.
According to the Swiss news site 20minuten.ch, specialists at Rare Whisky 101, who regularly serve as consultants at whiskey auctions, established that the bottle’s label was a fake.
The proprietor of the Waldhaus, Sandro Bernasconi, then travelled to Beijing and refunded the customer to prove that “the Swiss are honest people and do not engage in scams”, 20minuten quoted him as saying.
The site also published a photo of the two men holding a symbolic voucher valued at 9,999 Swiss francs, dated October 2017.
Bernasconi said the bottle with the fake label was bought 25 years ago by his father who previously ran the hotel.
“This whole time, we never doubted that the bottle was an original,” Bernasconi told 20minuten.
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4000 children a day die from malnutrition. What a wonderful world.
@jon-boy55: This
@jon-boy55: says you posting on your smartphone.
@jon-boy55:
The €100+ a guy might spend on a night out on the piss could be a months wages for someone in Zimbabwe. We’re all guilty of it, we’re just on the lower scale of what this Chinese guy is at.
@jon-boy55: I think you are not looking at the bigger picture Jon- boy,, yep some guy spent €8500 of his own money on a shot of whiskey(fool). That €8500 grand is a dram in the ocean when compared to a certain country spending 17.5billion on its latest aircraft carrier not to mention the rest of the worlds military expense every year….
@jon-boy55:
How much have you spent on alcohol or phones or taxis or any other luxuries in the last year?
@jon-boy55: And the guy who bought the whiskey is stealing their lunches or something?
I couldn’t see an Irish Hotelier walk to the end of the street to give a refund ,not without two or three years in Court for the complainant.
Sounds like Temple Bar Prices!
The Chinese, a great bunch of lads
Fools and their money
Some people really do have more money than sense.
Hmmm really expensive krappy whisky! Yum
Well he did get a full refund which he didn’t really deserve in my view..
@Stephen Duffy:
Why didn’t he deserve it? Whatever you think about someone who’s willing to spend that kind of money on a shot of whisky, he was sold a product that wasn’t as advertised – as such he’s entitled to a full refund the same as anybody else.
Either way it’s a PR masterstroke for the hotel – ten grand for worldwide publicity.
@Stephen Duffy: You are just example of Irish that have to be dragged to the court to be forced to pay refund your client deserved. Or you are Irish solicitor.
“the Swiss are honest people and do not engage in scams”….after they’ve been already caught out lol.
I swear we didn’t know bla bla bla…
Old news
I once paid €8 for 400 fake Marlboro cigarettes in Poipet. I don’t feel so bad about it now.
We need to send more bord failte reps to china
The barman discovered that the customer was a great grandson of Bruce Lee. HIIIIYAAAAAAH!!!!
This is why Distilleries need to be authentic in everything they produce , like Fake News there is Fake Whiskey anybody can put a whiskey in a bottle label it and give it a year and a story. I would like to see distilleries invest in Cooperages doing that give you a final provenance on your product somebody who can genuinely prove history and background to the makers of their special Whiskey a Master Distiller a Master Blender and a Master Cooper that is your story behind your Whiskey nothing else matters
Or spend 200 + million on a football player
A great example of the absurdity of the world.
Im defo getting into the fake vintage whiskey business, seems to pay well
@Mark Farrell: Good luck…nothing lasts the week in my house!
Are you sure it wasn’t Temple Bar?
Say he had some sore head on him
Just like most of the stuff,that comes out of
China
A fool and his money….
What? 9,999 Swiss francs??! Oh, only €8,500.
I’d say if you gave him a shot of Jameson he’d know no different
Just shows you these people are not aware of what’s happening in the real world
People die from basic want of water
22:33 and it’s at least 3 times this article has been top of the list. Poor journalism. The editor should be more awake at this hour.
Get back to work Cullo !
Mad
hilarious
It could have been worse though, I mean … er, actually no.
hahaha fool…..
have your say