France has been rocked by two massive wine frauds

We are used to hearing about wine fraud in China, but this week two massive wine frauds are being investigated and prosecuted in France itself.

Between 2013 and 2016 20 million litres of wine destined for Vin du France wine was labelled as Côtes-Du-Rhône and Côtes du Rhône Villages. Of this 1.3 million bottles was wrongly labelled Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The company and individual name has not been released, but has been reported in Decanter as bulk wine specialist Raphaël Michel.

Meanwhile in Bordeaux, prosecutors claimed that Grands Vins de Gironde (GVG) committed 'flagrant' wine fraud, illegally blending AOC wines with table wines and blending across AOCs, vintages and estates. The fraud included blending Languedoc wines with Bordeaux wines and blending wines from different vintages. The defence claims that the mislabelling of 200,000 litres of wine was due to the complex nature of their negotiant business, but prosecutors deny this.