Millions of bottles of fake wine on the wall

Be careful what you sip.

Drinking wine is a core part of the French identity, but the country has been besieged by major wine scams in recent years.

In the latest fraud, about 66.5 million bottles of wine were falsely sold as high-quality Côtes-du-Rhône, according to France’s consumer fraud agency. Their investigation unearthed a “massive misuse of the Côtes-du-Rhône label.” The CEO of the company responsible for the fraudulent sales has since been indicted.

In 2016, the owner of several châteaus across the Bordeaux region was given a two-year prison sentence and fined $8.7 million for fraud for blending poor quality wine with high-end wines to sell to major supermarkets.

In 2010, 12 French winemakers and dealers were convicted of selling millions of bottles of fake Pinot Noir to the U.S. firm E & J Gallo Winery.

But the real tragedy will occur if they start faking the escargots.