经济学人200:伪造的美酒 法国酒庄拉法克红酒

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　　伪造的美酒

　　Chateau¹ Lafake

　　法国酒庄拉法克红酒

　　The fine-wine boom is attracting forgers

　　美酒追捧热潮催生造假者

　　Taste is a delicate thing

　　味觉一种微妙的东西

　　WINE buffs are like art collectors.

　　葡萄酒爱好者与艺术品收藏者相同，

　　Few can tell the difference between a well-made fake and the real thing.

　　他们中很少人能分清真品与制作精良的赝品有什么区别。

　　Yet whereas counterfeit² art has been around for centuries, wine forgery³ is relatively⁴ new.

　　但艺术品伪造已经有几百年历史了，酒类伪造却还只是近几十年的事。

　　It started in the late 1970s when the prices of the best wines—especially those from Bordeaux—shot up.

　　20世纪70年代末期，由于精品美酒尤其来自法国波尔多的葡萄酒价格飙升，名酒伪造应运而生。

　　Today, with demand from China fuelling a remarkable⁵ boom, counterfeiting⁶ is rife⁷.

　　现在，中国对尊贵名酒的需求推动了名酒市场的繁荣,假冒伪劣酒也开始盛行。

　　By some estimates 5% of fine wines sold at auction⁸ or on the secondary market are not what they claim to be on the label.

　　据估计，拍卖会或二级市场出售的美酒有5%货不对板。

　　The simplest technique is to slap the label of a 1982 Chateau Lafite onto a bottle of 1975 Lafite.

　　伪造名酒最简单的方法是将1982年产法国酒庄拉法克红酒的标签贴到1975年产的拉菲红酒空瓶上。

　　Another trick is to bribe⁹ the sommelier of a fancy restaurant to pass on empty bottles that once held expensive wine, along with the corks¹⁰.

　　另一个伎俩是贿赂高级餐厅的调酒师，将盛装过昂贵名酒的空瓶和瓶塞一起拿到手，

　　These can be refilled with cheaper wine, recorked and resealed.

　　然后将空瓶重新灌装廉价酒，重新装塞，重新密封就完成了造假过程。

　　Empty Lafite and Latour bottles are sold on eBay for several hundred euros.

　　在eBay网上，Lafite和Latour红酒的空瓶通常价值几百欧元。

　　The margins¹¹ are fruity.

　　酒类伪造有可观的利润。

　　A great wine may cost hundreds of times more than a merely excellent one.

　　一瓶尊贵名酒的价格可能比一瓶单纯的优质酒贵上几百倍。

　　Small wonder that oenophiles are growing more vigilant¹².

　　难怪鉴酒专家们越来越趋于谨慎。

　　Bill Koch, an energy tycoon¹³ and avid¹⁴ wine collector, currently has five lawsuits¹⁵ pending¹⁶ against merchants, auctioneers and other collectors.

　　能源巨头比尔.科赫热衷于名酒收藏，他近来提起5宗涉及酒类的法律诉讼，分别状告酒商，拍卖师和其余酒类收藏家，案件至今未有裁决。

　　His grape-related gripes began in 2006, when he filed a complaint against a German wine dealer¹⁷ who sold bottles of Lafite he claimed had once belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

　　科赫先生对买红酒的抱怨始于2006年，当时他从一名德国酒商手中购买了很多据称是托马斯杰斐逊收藏过的红酒，后来发现有假而投诉了这名德国酒商，

　　The case is unresolved.

　　案子至今未果。

　　There is a code of silence in the industry, says Mr Koch, who owns 43,000 bottles of wine and estimates that he has spent 4m-5m on fakes.

　　科赫先生说：业界存在着一套潜规则，即买到假酒也要毫不声张。 他拥有43000瓶上好葡萄酒，但用于购买假酒的钱估计也在4-5百万美元左右。

　　Some collectors are too proud to admit that they have been duped.

　　有些收藏者觉得承认被骗不是件光彩的事。

　　Others fear sullying a vintage's reputation and thereby¹⁸ reducing the value of their own collections.

　　另一些则担心玷污了葡萄酒的声誉会降低自己拥有葡萄酒的收藏价值。

　　So instead of speaking out, they dump their fakes into auctions¹⁹ or sell them to other private collectors, says Mr Koch.

　　因此他们不会将事情张扬，而是"将假酒转手到拍卖会或出售给其它私人收藏者"，科赫先生如是说。

　　Wine merchants and auction houses say they are doing everything they can to filter out the fakes.

　　酒商及拍卖行表示他们正尽一切所能筛选出假货。

　　Simon Berry, the chairman of Berry Brothers & Rudd, a British wine merchant, says his firm never buys wines from before 2000 unless they come from its own cellars.

　　英国酒商贝瑞兄弟与陆克文主席西蒙贝里称他的公司从来不购买2000年以前的葡萄酒，除非它们真的来自出产的酒窖。

　　Christie's, an auctioneer, says all the wines it auctions are inspected three times by different people, using detailed²⁰ checklists for condition and authenticity²¹.

　　拍卖商佳士得称，它拍卖的所有名酒都要经过不同人反复检验三次，对他们出具的葡萄酒情况和真实度详单逐一对比验证。

　　Fear of fakery has not stopped the boom.

　　对伪造名酒的担忧并没有阻止名酒的市场繁荣。

　　But the wines that win the best prices at auction are those whose provenance²² is certain.

　　在拍卖会上竞得高价的名酒其来源也是真实可靠的。

　　In May, Christie's sold an impériale of 1961 Latour for $216,000 in Hong Kong.

　　五月份，佳士得在香港以21.6万美元拍售了一瓶1961产的impériale葡萄酒，

　　It came directly from the cellars of Chateau Latour.

　　它直接来自于产地Chateau Latour的酒窖。

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