| Abstract: |
Regrettably, criminal elements are present in all industries at one time or another and the wine industry is by no means exempt from this phenomenon. Recently, there have been some startling revelations in the French press, concerning wine fraud in the Cotes du Rhône region. Without seeing the details of such a case, it could be presumed that this involved a few dozen cases that were mis-sold or wrongly described. However, the fraud was on such a scale that it is one of the largest ever discovered in France – and unfortunately there have been a few others in recent past history. The discovery came last year, and it is estimated that 66.5 million bottles of cheap wine were falsely sold as Cotes du Rhône between 2013 and 2016, representing around 15 percent of annual production. |
