China Men Drilled Small Holes into 76 Bottles of Pricey Moutai, Siphoning off Fiery Chinese Spirit Before Replacing It with Cheap Substitute Detained

Authorities in eastern China seized a batch of counterfeit Moutai and detained two suspects accused of participating in a scheme of drilling extremely tiny holes into the bottles, siphoning off the real liquor before injecting the bottles with a cheap alternative.

The Market Supervision Bureau in Zhejiang province in eastern China received a tip last month from a wine retail store that suspected the 95 bottles of Moutai it had bought from a trading company in Ningbo were fake.

The batch of these spirits had a market price of 250,000 yuan (US$35,000), The Paper reported.

The Ningbo trading company told the market bureau they purchased the sham drinks from a group of hawkers who said they represented Kweichow Moutai, the producer of the famously expensive baijiu brand.

The official investigation found 76 bottles contained holes with a diameter of 0.2 mm and were filled with bogus liquor.

The perpetrators had carefully peeled the labels off the bottle before drilling the hairline holes, then covered them with synthetic cement before reapplying the labels.

“Even salespeople in the wine industry would hardly notice the holes, let alone ordinary consumers, ” said a market bureau official.

Police in Ningbo have arrested two suspects thanks to clues from the Hangzhou market authority. The case is still under investigation.

Kweichow Moutai’s signature product, Feitian Maotai, has an alcohol content of 53 per cent and is sold for around 3,000 yuan (US$420) per 500ml bottle.

Moutai, better known as Maotai in China, is such a popular drink on the mainland that even an empty bottle can fetch upwards of US$30 online.

Kweichow Moutai has adopted a “cross-sector” marketing strategy by co-branding with ice cream companies and coffee makers to attract young consumers.

In September, Kweichow Moutai and mainland brand Luckin Coffee released a new coffee called Jiangxiang Latte, which proved very popular.

Because Moutai is sought after, the brand must take extra measures to prevent counterfeiting.

For example, the Post reported that in 1996, the company introduced a bottle whereby the baijiu can only be poured out of the cap and not refilled.

Additionally, every bottle has a unique radio frequency identification code and individual serial numbers.