A Taiwanese billionaire, Wood Chen<\/b>, is being linked to a new \u2018fake wine\u2019 scandal with links to some of the country\u2019s leading tycoons. Two merchants, Top 100 Wine<\/b> and UMC<\/b> are embroiled in the affair, having sold up to NZ$50m worth of wine, including high-end Burgundy, that is now under a veil of suspicion. One of the stories doing the rounds in Taiwan (and now around the globe) is that a gathering of many of the nation\u2019s richest wine-lovers resulted in a diverse set of wines looking and tasting nearly identical.<\/p>\n
The path of the wines on the tables led back to Wood Chen – the billionaire former chairman of electronics giant Yageo Corporation, who is well-known for his love of top wine and fine dining. However, since 2019, the 67-year-old businessman has been \u2018selling off\u2019 his wine collection to friends, either directly or via merchants such as UMC.<\/p>\n
Such is the scandal engulfing the trade in Taiwan, that reports say that Huang Huihong<\/b>, of Top 100 Wine, has agreed to accept returns and reimburse his clients, and has revealed that the batch of suspect wines did come from Wood Chen.<\/p>\n
It is thought that some collectors have bought \u201chundreds of bottles of rare Burgundy\u201d, such as Domaine Dujac 2006 Grand Cru Chambertin. That is enough alone to raise suspicions – as only a few hundred bottles are distributed annually across the globe in a year. So, for them all to end up in Taiwan would be rather incredulous.<\/p>\n
In another twist to the tale, Wood Chen\u2019s brother, entrepreneur Pierre Chen<\/b>, is in the process of auctioning off a wine collection that has been labelled \u2018The Epicurean\u2019s Atlas\u2019<\/b>. Sotheby\u2019s expects to fetch a record $50m (\u00a339.2m) by auctioning off the collection of bottles. It is being auctioned in stages – having started in Europe, and will progress to sales in New York and Hong Kong. There is, however, nothing to suggest a connection between Wood Chen\u2019s wines and those owned by his brother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Taiwanese billionaire, Wood Chen, is being linked to a new \u2018fake wine\u2019 scandal with links to some of the country\u2019s leading tycoons. Two merchants, Top 100 Wine and UMC … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n