Wine forgery is a growing issue, and mislabeled bottles are only a drop in the barrel. An estimated 5% of fine wines are faked. The more expensive rare, old and collectible wines becomes, the more common fraud, writes Huon Hooke, noting that its not usually vintages, rather people re-filling empty bottles of great wines. “But to make the corked and capped bottle look authentic is more difficult than it might seem.”

Traces of Bikini atoll radioactive carbon are found in grapes harvested after 1960-era atmospheric atomic bomb tests. While alarming, scientists at Australia’s University of Adelaide use this radio-carbon technique to detect fraudulent vintages.

American brewery Dogfish Head re-creates a 9000-year-old beer, after analyzing Neolithic pottery found in China’s Henan province. Brewed from rice flakes, wildflowers, honey, grapes, barley malt, hawthorn fruit and chrysanthemums, it seems more mead than beer, and is marketed as Chateau Jiahu. Sales took off exponentially after a feature earlier this year on NPR’s All Things Considered. Credit to molecular archeologist Patrick McGoern from U of Pennsylvania for analyzing the original formula. This is the second ancient brew re-created by this Delaware company.
www.dogfish.com

We’re astounded by the stratospheric prices of aged premium alcohols, but when a distillate is too pure, it barely registers on the palate. Spare a thought for Kauffman special selected vintage Russian vodka, which producers claim has “some depth not normally associated with vodkas.” Distilled 8 times from Russia’s top wheat producing areas of a single year (whew!) it’s available in selected vintage, and luxury vintage editions. An even-pricier indulgence label hints of honey, anise and licorice, says the company. About $300 a litre, duty free. And if wheat prices continue to soar, expect even heftier pricing in the future, particularly after Russia’s fires destroyed nearly a third of that country’s crop earlier this year.
www.kaufmanvodka.com