Police conducted a three-month investigation after customers who noticed they were drinking cheap wine tipped them off. Police seized the fake wines from restaurants, bars and supermarkets in Tuscany. It was being sold for around US $40, reports ABC News.
According to the Local, the bottles of fake wine were sold on the national and international market for up to 10 times their actual value. Wine Searcher said that the operation is believed to have cost legitimate wine producers hundreds of thousands of Euros.
Police suspect that six companies were involved in the operation. The investigation is still ongoing because a large quantity of the mislabeled wines has already been exported, said Business Insider.
The cheap wine bottles were marked with the label DOCG, which stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita and is the highest classification for Italian wines, guaranteeing its origin.
Some of the DOCG-labeled wines seized in the raid include brands such as Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico and Bocelli, the Tuscan winery that belongs to opera singer Andrea Bocelli, reports Wine Searcher.
The Local reports that Italian newspaper II Secolo XIX called it a “vast fraud in the agribusiness” sector. The Italian Confederation of Farmers said that around 20 percent of the wine industry is affected by fraud, writes Business Insider.
