'139-Year-Old' Whiskey Sold to Chinese Writer Turns Out to Be Fake

A bottle of "139-year-old" whiskey sold to a Chinese writer for 9,999 Swiss francs ($10,000) in August at a Swiss hotel has turned out to be a fake.

The owner of the hotel, Sandro Bernascon, flew to China and apologized to the customer after confirming that the bottle was indeed made between 1970 and 1972.

It is reported that the Chinese customer, Zhang Wei, who is a famous Internet writer in China, had spent a total of 70,000 RMB at the hotel's Devil's Place Whisky Bar in August.

However, doubts were raised over the authenticity of the super expensive Macallan whiskey.

Hotel owner Sandro Bernascon is pictured alongside Zhang Wei

© Courtesy of Global Times

Bernascon, who placed huge importance on this matter, invited whiskey experts to check the spirit, and it was later proved to be fake.

According to the website 20Minuten, the hotel accepted the result and decided to reimburse Zhang.

"Zhang was not angry at this message, and he appreciated our honesty," Bernascon said.

The owner of the hotel told the Chinese writer that the Swiss are honest and won't cheat their customers.

It is reported that the bottle of whiskey was bought by Bernascon's father 25 years ago. They had never doubted the authenticity of it before, Bernascon noted.

This article was originally published in the Global Times.