What’s really in your drink? Cheap liquor in pricey bottles behind lower rates at NCR vends
On April 29, when the police burst into the basement of Charan Singh’s house in Faridabad, they found empty bottles of high-end whisky, including single malts – Black Label, Glenlivet, Macallan and Amrut Greedy Angels. The last is India’s most expensive whisky. They also found the paraphernalia of Singh’s trade – bottle caps, corks, paper and vinyl labels, large syringes, and some entry-level Indian whisky.
Put the extremes together for what may well be the secret of inexplicably low liquor prices in a bunch of stores in Faridabad and Gurugram. For 12 years, Charan ran an “illegal rebottling unit” in his basement. He poured cheap whisky into used bottles of expensive brands, sealed them shut, and sold them across 18 liquor stores in Faridabad.
So, this begets the question: Are you really pouring yourself Black Label from a bottle of Black Label?
While the customer is led to believe that they’ve bought a premium bottle of whisky at a fat discount, that’s not always the case. Sample this. A 750ml bottle of Black Label retails around ₹3,000, but several online sellers and stores in Gurugram are happy to sell it for ₹1,800, even less, while still managing to earn over ₹1,000 a bottle. How?
A trader buys a bottle from a scrap dealer for ₹300. They clean it up, plaster on a new label and screw on a fresh cap — each costs around ₹50 . Finally, they pour in bottom shelf whisky worth ₹350, and seal it.
This bottle cost the trader ₹750. The customer, paying for a discounted Black Label, shells out ₹1,800 for the bottle. These operations have spread across the National Capital Region (NCR), finding footholds in liquor stores in Faridabad, Gurugram and Delhi. At the heart of it is a well-oiled nexus between scrap dealers, label makers, liquor shop owners, even bar managers. Excise department officials and a member of a restaurants association claimed that while the practice of putting cheap alcohol in premium alcohol bottles is common, it mostly happens outside the regulated liquor market. “We have cracked down on at least 50 such units. Most of the bottles seized were of premium brands — Chivas Regal, Red Label, Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie, Black Level, Double Black, and Jack Daniel’s, among others,” said Vijay Pratap Singh, deputy superintendent of police (crime), Gurugram.
An official from Diageo India — the global liquor firm that produces brands such as Johnnie Walker Black Label and Double Black — denied that such counterfeits were produced and said these were “unsubstantiated rumours ahead of the festival season.”