A resident of New York pleaded guilty to selling two bottles of counterfeit Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, for $1,500 last year. The defendant will be sentenced in January 2018.
Although this case is the first successful prosecution for counterfeit Van Winkle Bourbon to date, other cases are under investigation. Buffalo Trace Distillery has spent over a half-million dollars over the past year alone, to curb online marketplaces potentially selling fake bottles.
With the annual release of the much-anticipated Van Winkle bourbons coming up soon, Buffalo Trace would like to take this opportunity to remind consumers to only buy Van Winkle bourbons from licensed retailers.
“Sadly, the Van Winkle bourbons are the latest victim of counterfeiting where innocent consumers are duped,” said Mark Brown, president/ceo, Buffalo Trace Distillery. “Avoid buying any bourbon or whiskey, especially the highly sought-after ones, from anyone in the secondary market, which includes online private sellers, or in these social media groups that claim to offer genuine products. The only legal and reputable source you should be buying from is a licensed retailer.”
Scam artists have been operating in a variety of ways, some of which include taking empty Van Winkle bottles and refilling them with a variety of other liquids, sometimes cheaper bourbons, sometimes mixtures of products only known to the deceiver.
Nowadays, the con artists have gotten more sophisticated with the ability to print counterfeit labels on home printers and other technological advances. “It’s disheartening to see this happening and to see innocent consumers being swindled,” said Julian Van Winkle, president, Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery. “We cannot stress enough to be careful, and do not buy your Van Winkle products on the secondary market. The old adage of if seems too good to be true, it probably is, definitely applies here.”