Bottle of Colonel E.H. Taylor Bourbon

Bottle of Colonel E.H. Taylor Bourbon
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Famed NY wine store fined $100K for selling fake bourbon

TV investigation finds $1,000 bottle of Colonel E.H. Taylor was counterfeit.

A leading New York drinks retailer has been hit with the maximum $100,000 fine after an undercover operation by a TV programme discovered they were selling fake bourbon.

Acker Merrall Condit, run by famed wine connoisseur John Kapon, was discovered to have sold a bottle of Colonel E.H. Taylor Four Grain Bourbon to a reporter working undercover for Inside Edition, the prestigious spirit retailing at $1,000.

The bottle was sent for analysis by the TV programme with results showing that the contents were not, in fact, Colonel E.H. Taylor. State regulators initiated an investigation into one of the city’s oldest wine and liquor stores and determined that it was purchased from a private collector.

The fine, which the store voluntarily offered to pay, was the maximum the state could impose with the liquor store’s solicitor, Kevin Danow, implying the store itself was a victim of a wider scam. The store is refusing to dismiss the staff members involved, with Danow explaining they would be “disciplined and retrained”.

Previously, Acker Merrall Condit, located on the Upper West Side, had been fined on five occasions in 2020 and 2021 for purchasing whiskey from “unauthorised” sellers.

Falstaff Editorial Team
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