The Fake Rolex Of The Whisky World

The Fake Rolex Of The Whisky World

More than a third of vintage Scotch whiskies tested at a specialist laboratory have been found to be fake, BBC Scotland has learned.

Twenty-one out of 55 bottles of rare Scotch were deemed to be outright fakes or whiskies not distilled in the year declared.The tests were conducted at the East Kilbride-based Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC).

It used advanced radiocarbon dating techniques to reach its conclusions.

SUERC measured residual concentrations of a radioactive isotope of carbon present in the alcohol contained in each bottle in order to establish the ages of the whiskies.

The samples had been sent for analysis by whisky broker Rare Whisky 101 (RW101), which said it was responding to "growing concern surrounding the proliferation of fake whisky" in the secondary market.

The bottles had been selected at random from auctions, private collections and retailers.

Last year, the same company exposed a £7,600 dram of vintage Scotch bought in a Swiss hotel as a fake.

How does carbon dating work?

By BBC Scotland science correspondent Kenneth Macdonald

The key to the dating process is an isotope - a variant - of carbon.

Carbon-14 is that element's only radioactive isotope and every piece of organic material - ourselves included - contains a tiny amount of it.

Its relatively slow rate of radioactive decay means it has a half-life of 5,370 years. In other words it takes that long for half of it to be gone.

Measuring how much Carbon-14 remains in a sample gives an accurate indication of how old it is.

How did it get there in the first place?

Cosmic rays are constantly bombarding our atmosphere.

When they interact with nitrogen, carbon-14 is created. It combines with oxygen to create a radioactive variant of carbon dioxide.

Plants then take in this radiocarbon. Animals, ourselves included, eat the plants and absorb it. When the plants, animals or we die that process stops.

But the carbon-14 goes on decaying, so a sample of organic matter like wood or bone will give an indication of when the plant or animal died.

Researchers are constantly refining the "calibration curve" of carbon-14 levels to give an more accurate indication of the age of a sample.

Techniques have been developed so that ever smaller samples can be dated.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-46566703