A Chinese millionaire, Ahang Wei, 36 had his money returned to him after tests proved that the whisky he purchased at a Swiss hotelwas a fake
He had been led to believe that the whisky was a 878 Macallan single malt. He shelled out just under 10,000 Swiss francs (£7,600, $10,050) for the privilege of a 2cl shot of the drink. Analysts from Scotland were called in by the Waldhaus Am See hotel in St Moritz after experts questioned the authenticity of the 2cl shot according to the BBC. However, it was found that the whisky was not brewed any earlier than 1970.
Wei became suspicious when the whisky industry experts spotted discrepancies in the bottle’s cork and label from newspaper articles. The hotel subsequently sent a sample of the drink to specialists who used carbon dating to determine the age at the University of Oxford. Results suggested that the drink had a 95% probability of having being created between 1970 and 1972. Further lab tests by Fife-based alcohol analysts Tatlock and Thomson indicated that it was probably a blended Scotch, comprising 60% malt and 40% grain - ruling it out as a single malt.
It is said to be “almost worthless as a collector’s item.” Had the bottle been genuine, it would have carried a bar-value of about 300,000 Swiss francs (£227,000).
Wei, an author, bought the dram while on holiday with his grandmother at the Swiss hotel, which stocks 2,500 different whiskies.
The Waldhaus manager Sandro Bernasconi told BBC Scotland that the hotel had no idea the bottle was a fake.
He said: “My father bought the bottle of Macallan 25 years ago, when he was manager of this hotel, and it had not been opened.
“When Mr Zhang asked if he could try some, we told him it wasn’t for sale. When he said he really wanted to try it, I called my father who told me we could wait another 20 years for a customer like that so we should sell it.
“Mr Zhang and I then opened the bottle together and drank some of it.”
A few days after tasting the whisky, Mr Zhang posted a message on the Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo about his experience. He wrote in Mandarin: “When I came across a fine spirit from over 100 years ago, there wasn’t much struggle inside.
