Our Wine Coterie

Our Wine Coterie takes wine fraudulence very seriously. We pledge to combat the prevalence of forged wine bottles that are refilled with inferior wine.

Hence, we carefully scrutinise and reject wines which we deem either questionable or inauthentic.

We understand that authenticity is the main concern in regards to online auctioning. We have designed this policy to safeguard and provide reassurance to all our users.

Our staff members are trained to verify the bottles via:

• Physical Check: We personally inspect each bottle. Are there spelling mistakes on the label? Does the printing/packaging look inferior? Is the fill level too high? Does the seal look damaged or tampered with? Is there a tax strip? If so how and where is it attached and is it the correct type/format for the bottle’s era?
• Research: We compare labels, liquid colour, fill level, glass codes, seals etc. with other bottles.
• Provenance: We research the source of the wine to gain information on its provenance.
• Expert opinion: We will not hesitate to ask for a second opinion by consulting with other industry insiders when assessing potential fakes. This ensures the highest possible level of scrutiny.

With more and more advanced counterfeiting methods, a fraudulent bottle may be mistakenly listed in the auction despite our careful measures. If you think a bottle listed in our auction is not genuine, please contact us immediately and provide us with the information. We would always appreciate the collaborative effort from the community to bring these frauds to our attention.

Please note that due to a reported wine-fraud operation, we do not accept any wines from Burgundian producer, Denis Philibert, from the 1990 vintage onwards.