Fighting vintage forgeries with 21st century technology

Counterfeit wine is an age-old fraud scheme, but today’s tracing technologies make combating wine forgery more palatable. Here’s how to fight vintage fraud with current technologies.

As the smoke cleared, Napoleon Bonaparte celebrated victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, with a sword in one hand and a glass of Grand Cru Chambertin in the other. Legend has it the French general and emperor always had a bottle of this Burgundy wine on his table, and it accompanied him on several military campaigns. More than 200 years later, a major scandal involving forgeries of Napoleon’s preferred wine made headlines.

In 2024, Italian, French and Swiss authorities, with the aid of Europol, uncovered an international operation selling fake French wines. The Italy-based criminal network toiled for more than a decade forging premium Grand Cru wine with counterfeit labels and corks, disguising bottles filled with lower-quality wine. The network sold these forgeries around the world for up to 15,000 euros ($16,360) per bottle. Police arrested six people involved in the operation, including one described as a “high-value target,” a Russian national who had served time in prison for a similar scheme in 2013, and seized 1.4 million euros ($1.53 million) in electronic equipment, bottling machinery, forged wine labels and cash. 

Wine fraud is an ancient scheme, and schemes such as wine adulteration, provenance forgery (faking a wine’s history) and false labeling have occurred for centuries. Authentication and risk management provider Wine & Whisky Provenance estimates that wine fraud may cost the current industry $70 billion annually and that as much as 20% of wine in circulation isn’t what it claims to be. However, advances in technology can make combating this type of fraud easier and put a stopper on wine forgery. 

Fine wines and forgery

Fine wines can fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction. Professional auction houses can verify the provenance of a wine, which is inspected for quality, condition and authenticity by wine specialists. A bottle of South African wine originally intended for Napoleon during his exile on the island of St. Helena (he died before he was able to taste it) sold for $30,000 at an auction in 2021. Other recent sales include two bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 1945, which sold for $558,000 and $496,000 at auction in 2018. Wines sold at charity events or those with unique characteristics can command large sums as well, such as The Setting Wines 2019 Glass Slipper Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, in California, which sold for $1 million at a charity auction, or the 2000 Château Pétrus that was aged in outer space, which British auction house Christie’s estimated could sell for $1 million.  

Expensive wines, both at auction and on the resale market, or secondary market, are prime targets for fraud. In July 2025, two men were charged in the U.S. with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy for a scheme in which they allegedly posed as executives of a wine company. The suspected fraudsters claimed to have a stockpile of expensive wines to use as collateral for brokered loans between investors and wealthy wine collectors. But the wealthy collectors didn’t exist, and the company didn’t have the wines used to secure the loans. According to prosecutors, the defendants misdirected $99 million in funds for personal expenses.

Other famous wine frauds include the alleged Thomas Jefferson bottles in the 1980s and wine collector Rudy Kurniawan, who sold millions of dollars’ worth of counterfeit wines in the 2000s and was arrested in 2012. Wine fraud has also found its way into popular culture with a 2024 episode of the animated comedy series “The Simpsons,” in which an expensive bottle of Chambertin once owned by Napoleon is accidentally opened and used in a stew. The characters make a convincing replica wine to replace the vintage for sophisticated members of a wine club. They decide to continue the fraud by selling the wine at an auction to make money for a charity organization but are then arrested for wine forgery.

Alcohol industry news publication, The Drinks Business, reported in May 2025 that an Asian organized crime gang has teamed up with a European criminal gang to flood the U.K. retail market with fake Australian wine and spent half a million dollars on the same type of digital printer used by professional wine producers to replicate bottle labels.  

Regulating the wine industry

Fraudulent wines have plagued the wine industry for centuries. As early as the first century, Roman writer, Pliny the Elder, complained about the abundance of cheap imitations of supposedly exclusive Roman wine. Modern French appellation rules, which designate where certain wine grapes can be grown, likely originated in a 14th century French ordinance ordering the destruction of a grape perceived to be low quality but favored by growers for its low cost and high yield.  

Today, the European Union (EU) protects regional names through its Protected Designation of Origin system, which makes misuse of names a criminal offense and enforces labeling transparency rules. Similarly, the U.S. enforces appellation of origin rules, mandates truthful labeling of bottles and requires vineyards to maintain documentation related to production, storage and sales that verify claims on wine labels.

Traditional methods of verifying wine provenance include reviewing receipts, written certificates and paperwork demonstrating chain of custody. Additional techniques, such as expert tasting and isotopic and chromatographic investigations, require uncorking a bottle. Isotopic investigations involve analyzing the ratios of stable isotopes of elements like carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which indicate the wine’s origin. In chromatographic investigations, the chemical components of the wine are analyzed to classify the variety and origin. Other fraud detection techniques involve analyzing the label, including the type of paper, writing or print style, type of ink and glue used. Wine authenticity can also be verified by analyzing the cork and bottle, investigating the seller and reviewing known production data. 

Potential red flags indicating wine fraud include:

1. Inconsistencies with the label, such as printing, paper, ink or font types that don’t historically match the type of wine being analyzed.
2. Damage to the cork, or signs that the cork has been removed and replaced.
3. Incorrect branding on the cork.
4. Incorrect bottle glass.
5. No detailed provenance.
6. Low pricing for rare or desirable vintages.
7. Suspicious-looking sediment at the bottom of the bottle that doesn’t move or has a strange hue, indicating that it’s been artificially added by fraudsters. One forgery technique is to add coffee grinds or other adulterants and use heat to create an aging effect.

Modern methods for detecting wine fraud

The problem with many traditional methods of verifying wines is they’re often inadequate, costly and easily exploited by fraudsters who use forgery techniques that are difficult to detect. These include creating false labels and using modern chemical analysis to blend less expensive wines to replicate the chemical profile of a more expensive wine. Modern technology offers more effective ways to verify wine. A relatively novel approach to dealing with counterfeit wines involves infrared spectrometry, which measures how molecules in wine absorb different wavelengths of light to determine the wine’s composition. A unique “spectral fingerprint” can also be developed to use with statistical analysis to determine a wine vintage’s authenticity, geographic location and ingredient composition. Techniques that use spectrometers allow wine to be inspected through the glass, eliminating the need to uncork a bottle.

Another approach is the use of the blockchain. A unique digital identifier can be assigned to a batch of bottles to track the bottles’ progress. From harvesting, bottling and labeling, to distribution and sale, blockchain can create a record of provenance on an immutable ledger (data recorded on the ledger is permanent and can’t be deleted or changed). Buyers can scan a quick response (QR) code or near field communication (NFC) tag (a small electronic device with a microchip and antennae that allows information to be transferred from the tag to a device, such as a smartphone, over a short distance) to verify authenticity. Distributors can then verify shipment information and enhance quality control in transport and storage.

In 2016, tech firm Everledger and fine-wine expert Maureen Downey used blockchain technology to secure the provenance of a 2001 bottle of Margaux, a highly coveted Bordeaux wine. Everledger and labeling company Avery Dennison have also worked with the Wine Trade Network to track Napa Valley wines, allowing consumers “to discover the lifetime journey of their wine — from grape to bottle — simply by tapping their mobile phones on the label.” 

Smart seals may also indicate whether a bottle has been tampered with, and smart contracts can be used to enforce contract provisions and to prevent gray-market sales or illegal resales. Smart seals combine a physical security mechanism with digital technology and can incorporate tracking features such as a GPS. Smart contracts, or self-executing agreements stored on the blockchain, create a verifiable and secure chain of custody for assets. Regulatory bodies may use blockchain data to ensure compliance with appellation standards, and law enforcement may use such information during criminal investigations. For instance, Georgia’s National Wine Agency has incorporated blockchain data to combat counterfeit wines. 

Other examples of preventive technology include the EU-funded TRACEWINDU Project, which implements blockchain transparency and data provenance with smart tags to improve sustainable wine production. Enseal developed technology for wine in screwcap bottles with the NFC-enabled bottle cap. And Club dVIN, a private wine club, uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to prove authenticity and title. NFTs are unique digital identifiers recorded on the blockchain that represent ownership of an asset and are generally considered immutable.  

Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) allow for quicker and more accurate analysis and can identify inconsistencies in labeling that the human eye might miss. Smart devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), which can track grape growth, track environmental conditions in vineyards and monitor storage conditions and temperature control, can improve production operations, supply chain efficiency and quality. 
    
Tracking and monitoring can also be done in real time. Auction houses, customs inspectors, law enforcement and collectors can use handheld spectrometry devices or even smartphones to verify the authenticity of wine bottles on site without having to bring bottles to a lab. These technologies can assure consumers of the authenticity of wines and provide security and valuable environmental and commercial information to producers and sellers.  

Fighting against forgery

As fraudulent wine continues to appear on the market, Certified Fraud Examiners (CFEs) can play an important role in helping to prevent and detect wine fraud. CFEs’ data analysis and fraud detection skills are assets to a wine dealer’s supply chain. They can also help assess risks to supply chains and wine dealers. 

Here are a few ways to report suspected wine fraud:

• In the U.S., the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau regulates alcohol production, labeling and trade practices. Tips may be submitted online or by phone to its Fraud Hotline at 855-TTB-TIPS.
• In the European Union, the European Anti-Fraud Office maintains an online Fraud Notification System.
• In the U.K., the Food Standards Agency deals with issues within the production and marketing chain and may be contacted at winestandards@food.gov.uk.
• The organization Wine Australia reports fraud issues and employs a fraud officer to investigate noncompliance.

Other individual countries maintain consumer protection and anti-fraud offices or agricultural regulators that may be appropriate for reporting suspicious activity. For issues of immediate concern involving criminal activity, local law enforcement is appropriate to contact.

By understanding current anti-fraud technologies and wine regulations regarding provenance and authenticity, fraud examiners can play a key role in combating wine fraud by protecting wineries, distributors, auction houses, collectors and consumers.

Kevin Hanratty, CFE, CPA, is a compliance officer at Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c., in New York. Contact him at kjhan@aol.com.