Castle Winery teaches you how to identify genuine and fake Lafite red wine at a glance

In 1982, the rating agency Parker gave Lafite a perfect score of 100. Since then, Lafite's worth has skyrocketed. Coupled with the hype of film and television, Lafite has become a household name in China. Under the current severe crackdown on counterfeiting, "high imitation Lafite" is still hard to guard against. Let's start by looking for faults. Which of the following is the real Lafite?

The "family" of Lafite is very large, and it is inevitable that the fake ones will be confused. The editor has summarized several methods to distinguish real and fake Lafite. It is recommended to use several methods at the same time to strangle the fakes in the wallets of unscrupulous traders.

1. Look at the wine labels. Strictly speaking, those wines under the Lafite Group only belong to the series of red wines produced by the Lafite Group and are not Lafite wines. Big Lafite and Little Lafite belong to the Chateau Lafite series. (Please remember the correct wine labels below)
Bottled in the genuine winery (MIS EN BOUTEILLE AU CHÂTEAU)
Second-label winery bottling (MIS EN BOUTEILLE Â LA PROPRIÉTÉ)
Genuine (CHATEAU LAFITE ROTHSCHILD)
Secondary brand (CARRUADES de LAFITE) production area (PAUILLAC)
Memory will inevitably betray you, so save the image and bring it out when necessary. If the above three spelling errors are found on the wine label, it can be considered as fake wine.
The high price of Château Chateau will make it lose to Lafite

It is worth noting that Chateau Lafite added a hot air balloon to its label in 2018 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Rothschild family’s acquisition of Chateau Lafite, (the initials of ‘CL’ stand for the Roman numeral 150, also placed on the neck of the 2018 release bottle) to reflect the “modernity and adventure” of the wine’s first vintage.

2. It is easiest to identify the bottle sealing iron piece of the wine hat Lafite. Above his design is the chateau chateau, with Lafite Rothschild written in the middle. The bottle sealing iron pieces in the picture below are from the 1980s to 2002, and the designs are similar. The only difference is that the color of the iron pieces is slightly different, showing different red colors.


Genuine Lafite wine hat with castle pattern printed on it

The iron seal on the bottle of Carruades de Lafite, Lafite's second brand wine, has Domains Barons de Rothschild written on the outer ring and Rothschild's five arrows logo in the middle. If you look closely, you will find that these five arrows are slightly different from Mouton's five arrows. Above the R in the middle, the word Lafite is printed, representing the Lafite Rothschild family.

Lafite second brand wine hat pattern

3. Look at the cork
The corresponding year is printed on the side of the cork of each bottle of Lafite. On the other side of the cork, there is a pattern of Lafite Castle and the words Grand Vin de Château Lafite Rothschild written on it. For Lafite of different vintages, the cork designs are similar.

Generally speaking, the cork of old Lafite is not too new unless it has been "re-corked". The corks of "fake Lafite" are usually too new or too short, and the workmanship is very rough.
Hongkang Trading Company recycles Lafite red wine at high price
4. Looking at the wine bottle of Lafite before 1996, the wine bottle was just like an ordinary bottle of Bordeaux wine, with no pattern under the bottleneck. However, in 1996, in order to prevent counterfeiting, the winery adopted a special wine bottle. The following are the patterns of different years~
Wine bottle patterns of different years

1985: The year 1985 and Halley’s Comet were engraved to commemorate the return of Halley’s Comet.

Before 1996: There is no pattern between the label and the neck of the bottle. Beginning in 1996: The Rothschild family logo - a pattern of five arrows with the word "Lafite" in the middle - is engraved on the bottle.

1999: The bottle is engraved with the sun, moon and 1999 to commemorate the total eclipse.

2000: The wine bottle is engraved with the number 2000 in the middle of the five-arrow family logo to commemorate the millennium.

2005: The wine bottle is engraved with a scale pattern, with rain and sunshine on both sides of the scale, representing the
The balance of rainfall and sunshine in 2005 made it a year of excellent wine quality.

2008: The year 2008 and the Chinese "eight" are engraved on the wine bottle to attract the attention of the Chinese people. Some say it is to commemorate the Rothschild family's cooperation in establishing a winery in Penglai, Shandong.
Castle Winery recycles red wine

If you find an engraving between the label and the bottle neck of a genuine Lafite wine before 1996, it can be considered a fake wine, except of course for 1985. If you don’t find engravings on wine bottles made after 1996, you can also assume that it is fake wine.
The combination of the vintage and the Rothschild family logo on the 2000 Lafite bottle

▲The pattern on the 2000 Lafite bottle that combines the year and the Rothschild family logo

5. Look at the texture & printing first. Since the Lafite red wine label is a screen-printed wine label, the wine label feels uneven and layered;
Second, the main picture of Lafite Wine is a picture of wine farmers cultivating the land of the winery. The dots and lines are extremely clear. The inferior wine label has poor printing quality, uneven ink, blurry picture and poor clarity.
Castle Winery specializes in recycling Lafite red wine

6. Official Anti-Counterfeiting Technology If you are really worried about buying a high imitation of a large or small Lafite, you can buy the vintages of 2009 and later, because after this vintage, starting from the cellar after 2012, both large and small Lafite have begun to adopt the method that is extremely difficult to counterfeit. "Bubble anti-counterfeiting label".
Hong Kong recalls Lafite red wine at high price

There is a two-line anti-counterfeiting code below the silver bubble code. Consumers can enter the anti-counterfeiting page of the official website http://www.lafite.com/ and enter the code to query. If it is not genuine Lafite, the following prompt will appear:
Castle Winery recycles red wine at high prices
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