Fraud in the wine industry: 30% of producers engage in unfair winemaking practices

For two years, in 2022 and 2023, the DGCCRF inspected 7,800 establishments, from production to sale, on the traceability of the wines offered.

Nearly 30% of wine producers engage in unfair winemaking practices, according to a survey by the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), revealed Wednesday, July 9, by France Inter.

Over two years, in 2022 and 2023, the DGCCRF inspected 7,800 establishments, from production to sale, for the traceability of the wines offered. In the 1,600 production establishments inspected, 30% cases of fraud were detected.

Investigators from the French Anti-Fraud Agency analyzed the wines in a specialized laboratory in Pessac, Gironde. After distillation, the separation of all the liquid components from the wine, the biologists were able to determine whether the producer had added sugar to increase the alcohol content of their wine, even though they were not authorized to do so.

Some producers also sometimes add colorings to "respond to fashionable consumer trends, such as blue wine," explains Marie Suderie, spokesperson for the DGCCRF. She points out that "adding colorings is prohibited in the wine sector."

And in the 30% of establishments with unfair winemaking practices, the most serious deception concerns the origin of the wine. "We have widely sanctioned wine merchants who organized the Frenchification of Spanish wines," explains Marie Suderie. This represents "34,000 hectoliters of Spanish wines" that producers passed off as French. These merchants were sentenced to a fine of one million euros and a two-year suspended prison sentence. DGCCRF investigators also identified unfair winemaking practices at 40% of wine distributors - bars, wineries, or supermarkets.