Taiwanese media outlet Business Today received a tip-off claiming that the country’s elites have been caught up in a series of fake wine transactions.
They allegedly spent more than NT$1bn (£23.6m) on high-end Burgundy at two merchants – Top 100 Wine and UMC. These wines are now suspected to be fake.
Huang Huihong, who runs Top 100 Wine, has reportedly agreed to accept returns and reimburse his clients. He allegedly revealed that the batch of suspect wines came from Wood Chen, the billionaire former chairman of electronics giant Yageo Corporation.
Wood Chen’s brother, entrepreneur Pierre Chen, is in the process of auctioning off a wine collection known as The Epicurean’s Atlas.
Sotheby’s expects to fetch a record $50m (£39.2m) by auctioning off the ‘mythical’ collection, and it shattered multiple world records earlier this month. There is nothing to suggest a connection between Wood Chen’s wines and those owned by his brother.
According to local reports in Taiwan, the country’s elites recently gathered at a party to enjoy wines from different vintages, plots and wineries in Burgundy. However, the wines looked and tasted almost identical, which aroused suspicion.
All of the wines pointed to Wood Chen, who is renowned for his love of fine wine and haute cuisine. Since 2019, the 67-year-old businessman has been selling off his wine collection to friends, either directly or via merchants such as UMC.
Reporters confronted him about the allegations, but he defended his cellar. ‘You cannot conclude that all the wines are fake from one tasting session. Only three or four out of 11 bottles at that tasting session were from my collection, and it’s uncertain if those wines were from me.
‘With many wines in a collection, having some bad ones is normal. My collection is extensive, and it’s impossible for all wines to be perfect. But linking me to selling fake wines is excessive.’
However, the scandal has reportedly sparked panic among influential figures in Taiwan’s finance, technology, real estate and media industries. ‘Have you returned your wine?’ has apparently become a popular topic at dinner tables, according to Vino-Joy.
One insider revealed that some collectors have purchased hundreds of bottles of rare Burgundy, such as Dujac’s 2006 Grand Cru Chambertin. That is suspicious, as only around 400-500 bottles are distributed each year on a global basis, and Taiwan may only receive a single bottle on allocation.
Wood Chen has reportedly agreed to refund at least one client, but he has maintained his innocence. ‘With friends holding tasting sessions five times a week, totalling 200 sessions a year, one cannot assume wines are fake just because they taste similar at one session,’ he told reporters. ‘If wine temperature is too high, the taste can be similar.’
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