“Do not drink wine of unknown origin… If you have it, please return it to the merchant as soon as possible.” Over the past three months, this warning message has been widely circulated among Taiwan’s elite circles. “Have you returned your wine?” has become a hot topic at dinner tables.
The transaction value of this “fake wine scandal” is estimated to exceed NT$1 billion, with suspicions centered on Taiwan’s prominent wine collector Wood Chen, the former chairman of Yageo Corporation and brother of Pierre Chen. Chen’s “The Epicurean’s Atlas” collection offered by auction house Sotheby’s is reported to be the largest and most expensive wine collection ever offered at auction.
In mid-May, Taiwan’s media outlet Business Today received a tip-off, claiming that since the beginning of the year, Taiwan’s elite have been ensnared in a storm of fake wine transactions worth over NT$1 billion. The buyers, mostly influential figures from finance, technology, real estate, and media industries, discovered that many suspect wines originated from two Taiwanese wine companies, Top 100 Wine and UMC. At the source is the famous Taiwanese wine collector, 67-year-old Wood Chen, former president of Yageo Corporation.
The scandal began eight months ago when an entrepreneur brought a bottle of white wine from the Premier Cru vineyard Perrières of Burgundy’s Coche-Dury winery to a dinner with the winery’s exclusive agent. The agent immediately pointed out that the wine might be counterfeit based on its taste and bottle details.
Following the news, many collectors privately checked their cellars for wines from the same region and source. Some buyers compared the bottle labels and found discrepancies from genuine ones, tracing the suspect wines back to Top 100 Wine. The head of Top 100 Wine, Huang Huihong, agreed to accept returns but revealed that the batch came from none other than Wood Chen, causing a shock in the industry.
An insider revealed that some Burgundy wines, like Dujac’s Grand Cru Chambertin, have only 400-500 bottles distributed worldwide each year, with Taiwan possibly getting just one bottle annually. However, recently in Taiwan, hundreds of bottles of the 2006 vintage alone have surfaced, with one insider boasting 200 bottles and another buying 400 bottles at once.
At a particular wine party, different vintages, wineries, and plots of Burgundy wines were served, yet they tasted and looked almost identical, according to the Business Today report. Despite various purchase channels, all pointed to the same source—Wood Chen.
In late May, an enthusiast revealed that a bottle of wine labeled 1995 from Burgundy’s famous Georges Roumier winery, priced at NT$300,000-400,000, had a cork statement the vintage being 1998. Upon verifying with the winery, it was confirmed that the cork was not theirs. This bottle was also purchased from Top 100 Wine, supplied by Wood Chen.
The Billionaire Collector
Wood Chen, founder and chairman of Taiwan’s electronic giant Yageo Corporation, is known for his love of fine wine and cuisine. Since 2019, Wood Chen has claimed that due to his age, he cannot consume all his collected wines and began selling them to friends, either directly or through wine merchants.
In recent years, Chen has frequently interacted with a construction tycoon, who was impressed by the regular serving of Romanée-Conti Grand Cru at their gatherings. The tycoon introduced friends to group-purchase Chen’s collection through UMC, with individual amounts ranging from millions to nearly a billion NT$, rumored to total NT$600-700 million, according to local media reports.
When asked about the ongoing fake wine scandal, Chen defended his cellar, “You cannot conclude that all the wines are fake from one tasting session. Only 3 or 4 out of 11 bottles at that tasting session were from my collection, and it’s uncertain if those wines were from me. Moreover, with friends holding tasting sessions five times a week, totaling 200 sessions a year, one cannot assume wines are fake just because they taste similar at one session. If wine temperature is too high, the taste can be similar.”
For the dubious quality of some wines, Chen believes it’s common with older wines. “With many wines in a collection, having some bad ones is normal. If a wine is over 20 years old, the spoilage rate is at least 15% to 20%; for wines over 30 years, it’s about 30%; and over 40 years, about half. If wine is stored for more than 40 years, the cork might also fail, which is uncontrollable,” he explained.
“My collection is extensive, and it’s impossible for all wines to be perfect. But linking me to selling fake wines is excessive,” said Chen.
However, the fake wine scandal has caused panic, leading some buyers of high-end wines in Taiwan to demand refund. In response, Chen agreed to a refund request from a client, returning the money in cash. Additionally, Chen personally called a buyer from the construction tycoon’s group-purchase group, telling him to contact the intermediary for returns if there were any doubts about the purchased wines.
It’s worthy to note that Wood Chen’s brother Pierre Chen is also a renowned collector of art and wine in his own right. Chen is putting up 25,000 bottles of his wines on sale through Sotheby’s over a series of auctions under The Epicurean’s Atlas. Predicted to sell for up to US$50 million, it is known as the largest and most expensive wine collection ever offered at auction.
The first tranche from this collection staged in Hong Kong last November achieved HK$131 million (US$16.8 million). The second sale occured in Paris and the third in Burngdy, with the remainig two planned for New York for September and eventually in Hong Kong for November this year.
Currently, it is unclear whether there is any connection between the collections of Pierre Chen and his brother Wood Chen.
How will this “fake wine scandal” evolve? Will the police get involved in the investigation? Vino Joy News will continue to follow up.
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