The 105th China Food and Drinks Fair Autumn edition kicked off in Tianjin on October 15 (picture credit: Xinhua)

The 105th China Food and Drinks Fair Autumn edition kicked off in Tianjin on October 15 (picture credit: Xinhua)

Derided by trade professionals as "Disneyland of fakes", the scale of knockoffs seen at this year's Autumn edition of China Food & Drinks Fair in Tianjin is staggering. We have rounded up some of the worst offenders here from fake DRC to counterfeit Petrus.

DRC having a split personality

The biggest surprise at the wine fair is a Pompaddy Conti, which among many flagrant problems has some sort of identify crisis.

Fashioned exactly the same as Domaine de Romanee Conti in Burgundy, the fraudster obviously wanted to pander to both Bordeaux drinkers and Burgundy lovers. The solution as they ventured is to label the wine as both a Bordeaux Supérieur and Burgundy Premier Cru (as shown in the image below).

Pompaddy Conti, an imitation of DRC is a chameleon, falsifying as a both a Bordeaux Suerperieur and a Burgundy Premier Cru (picture supplied)
Pompaddy Conti, an imitation of DRC is a chameleon, falsifying as a both a Bordeaux Supérieur and a Burgundy Premier Cru (picture supplied)

The blend in the wine is not exactly a combo we see from Bordeaux or Burgundy either, as it says the wine uses Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc on the back label.

What’s stunning about the wine or in fact a haul of fakes at the fair is that they appear to come from the same distributor – Shanghai Feidisi Trading Company, the same company that was at the center of the biggest counterfeit Bordeaux wine operation as we have reported.

The Shanghai Feidisi’s legal representative surnamed Yu is the same person as the owner of Shandong Shunyi Wine Company, which produced counterfeit Bordeaux red wine, Shunyi Lifei, with a glossy back story that conjured up a fictitious war with the first growth Chateau Lafite Rothschild in 1755 and a fictional Baron Shunyi.

The shared legal representative likely means the two companies are in fact connected and it acts as both the producer and distributor.

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