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The Shutterstock/Kantapit Tanadkarn

A Chinese man paid €8,500 for a glass of 139-year-old scotch that turned out to be fake

The owner of the Swiss bar travelled to Beijing and refunded the customer.

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.

© – AFP 2017

Read: New course hoping to make most of brewing and distillery ‘renaissance’ >

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    Mute jon-boy55
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 12:36 PM

    4000 children a day die from malnutrition. What a wonderful world.

    541
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    Mute Allan
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 12:43 PM

    @jon-boy55: This

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    Mute MaryLoonyMcDonald
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:14 PM

    @jon-boy55: says you posting on your smartphone.

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    Mute Feach News
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:15 PM

    @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.

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    Mute gordon larney
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:39 PM

    @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….

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 2:07 PM

    @jon-boy55:

    How much have you spent on alcohol or phones or taxis or any other luxuries in the last year?

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    Mute Ne
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 4:06 PM

    @jon-boy55: And the guy who bought the whiskey is stealing their lunches or something?

    21
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    Mute Brian O Reilly
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:04 PM

    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.

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    Mute Damien Gavan
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 2:13 PM

    Sounds like Temple Bar Prices!

    108
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    Mute Emilio Butler
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:44 PM

    The Chinese, a great bunch of lads

    77
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    Mute Joe Soap
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 12:39 PM

    Fools and their money

    169
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    Mute Ciara Baines
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:14 PM

    Some people really do have more money than sense.

    44
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    Mute John Culhane
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 12:32 PM

    Hmmm really expensive krappy whisky! Yum

    31
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    Mute Stephen Duffy
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:09 PM

    Well he did get a full refund which he didn’t really deserve in my view..

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:33 PM

    @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.

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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:47 PM

    Either way it’s a PR masterstroke for the hotel – ten grand for worldwide publicity.

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    Mute cortisola
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 2:35 PM

    @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.

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    Mute RogerRamjet
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:54 PM

    “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…

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    Mute Scorpionvenomm
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 12:57 PM

    Old news

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    Mute Chad Rockett
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 2:13 PM

    I once paid €8 for 400 fake Marlboro cigarettes in Poipet. I don’t feel so bad about it now.

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    Mute Zx5vZulB
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:42 PM

    We need to send more bord failte reps to china

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    Mute Paul Culligan
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:15 PM

    The barman discovered that the customer was a great grandson of Bruce Lee. HIIIIYAAAAAAH!!!!

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    Mute Quinlans Coopering
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 12:57 PM

    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

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    Mute Ian Macwilliam
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 4:39 PM

    Or spend 200 + million on a football player

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    Mute Patty Cullinane
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 2:10 PM

    A great example of the absurdity of the world.

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    Mute Mark Farrell
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 2:04 PM

    Im defo getting into the fake vintage whiskey business, seems to pay well

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    Mute Paddy Moretti
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 10:35 PM

    @Mark Farrell: Good luck…nothing lasts the week in my house!

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    Mute Paul Radburn
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 5:50 PM

    Are you sure it wasn’t Temple Bar?

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    Mute Bob McTanned
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:03 PM

    Say he had some sore head on him

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    Mute Des Doran
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 6:37 PM

    Just like most of the stuff,that comes out of
    China

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    Mute Ciaran Fairley
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:46 PM

    A fool and his money….

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    Mute Paddy Moretti
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 10:33 PM

    What? 9,999 Swiss francs??! Oh, only €8,500.

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    Mute Mark Walsh
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 5:00 PM

    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

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    Mute jenni
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 10:43 PM

    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.

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    Mute An bhearna
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 1:32 PM

    Get back to work Cullo !

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    Mute Pepe Kekistani
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    Nov 8th 2017, 3:43 PM

    Mad

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    Nov 26th 2017, 3:57 PM

    hilarious

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    Mute Anthony Halpin
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 6:02 PM

    It could have been worse though, I mean … er, actually no.

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    Mute Barry morcom
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    Nov 3rd 2017, 10:44 PM

    hahaha fool…..

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