By the way, wasn’t it against Velier’s request to re-sell the VSGB?
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I asked RT about fakes and they answered that they are checking each bottle carefully and it “seems” (they said it may happen) they use an alcohol meter to check the ABV of the inside of the bottle. I don’t know what it means. Can they do that ? Can they do that even for black bottles ? Maybe they won’t communicate about it to avoid better fakes. I don’t know. But for shure they have the bottles in hand, like RA and they can check a few things. On the contrary EBay and Catawiki can’t do that. A huge difference in my opinion.
What do you think ?
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Well, sounds interesting. It would be cool if they provide more details on their measurement. This would certainly increase their credibility. But it sounds legit to me, we are able to detect the alcohol in the planets from other solar systems so why shouldn’t it be possible with a closed bottle?
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It seems a little difficult to use an alcohol meter to check the ABV inside the bottle when the bottle is sealed. Unless they use magic…
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I just had a chat with a friend who has a PhD in biology and is a lab head in one of our quality labs (I work in Biopharma).
She doesn’t know a method but she assumes that it could be an absorbtion measurement method of the liquid but also of the gas above liquid level.
Just googled an found some absorbtion curves in the infrared spectrum.
You also have to consider the bottle (colour, etc.).
This sound plausible for me.
In any case RT or RA have an intrinsic interest to secure that there are no fakes for their reputation. And at least they have staff handling several 100 bottles a month.
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magic=science 
It’s just enough they use infrared laser and measure absorbtion coefficient. The dark glass might be opaque in the visible light but my guess is its transparent for some wavelengths.
But if I were to fake a bottle, I would probably fill it with another rum instead of water, even a good one. If this is rare, chances are the buyer does not know what taste to expect. I wonder how they can ensure such things don’t happen.
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Does it? Sounds more like marketing talk to me. “We check for fakes” is always reassuring to the customer, even if it’s a lie.
I highly doubt RT has lab equipment – let alone the expertise to operate it properly – to perform such an analysis on a precise enough level. But I welcome it if I’m beeing proven wrong.
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My guess is also, that this is possible. But simply not affordably for any auction house mentioned here.
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My friend who is a whisky collector for 30 years told me that in the fakes he encountered was cheap whisky, they didn’t use water but the didn’t tried to fake the whisky itself.
The bottle and label and capsule seemed genuine, so quite impossible to notice a fake there. I have to ask him if he thinks they refilled genuine bottles.
All the fakes he encountered came from Italy. A bad thing for us as a lot of very good rums are going from there.
I think when RT said that they can check the ABV I assume they means the exact one.
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yeah, you guys may be right, I’m a researcher myself and got carried away… 
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I would have loved to get my hands on a 1975 bottle, but this one does not look right to me, the ship in the 1975 label is not coloured, its dimensions seem not to fit, the outer lines are not even…
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actually I think the top label looks fine. The colour of the ship has faded, in line with the colour of the red stripe (this points to sun exposure which is another consideration). That stripe is often uneven. Capsule looks fine, too. But I see lots of issues with the main label.
- It looks like it came out of a laser printer
- The symbols at the bottom are wrong
- the words are wrong
- …
It’s simply not the correct label for that bottle overall. Not a red flag per se, maybe the original label was damaged badly or came off completely and it was decided to be replaced (and he didn’t find a good enough picture of the propper label). But I would expect transparency about this from the seller. If not, hands off – there might be other things wrong with it worse than a replacement label.
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I compared the label with others, and could not find any that had the colours similarly faded, even though the bottles clearly had some rough treatment. I agree, though, that the capsule looks intact. And I am neither claiming it is fake…(disclaimer)
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Agreed, because no one is stupid enough to store their bottles in direct sunlight. This one might have spent years in the window of a shop. However the body of the ship still has a slight yellow-ish tint. The drawing of the ship, the font above, the year number, the red stripe, the overall equally faded appearance … looks fine to me. Except the faded colour.
It’s probably fine, with the wrong label. Maybe it’s even worth the risk if it stays below 200€?!
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I would ask for high resolution pics of both labels.
Just found a pic on whiskyfun where the label looks a little bit different - even if I wouldn’t rate Serge V as bulletproof when it comes to pictures of labels.
Whiskyfun March 2015 - part 2 - Tasting Yamazaki, Knockando, Tomatin, Macallan, Liknkwood, Bruichladdich…
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Maybe that’s because it’s the 43% version. The one from above is 45%.
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i have to admit, I am really tempted, but mainly for this nostalgic thing, as it is the ‚right‘ vintage 
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You sure you would like to drink something that could have been in the sun for too long? As I heard heat and sunlight do not help preserve the content of a bottle…
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I did not go for it…too questionable for me. There will be other opportunities to enjoy 1975 rum…
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