Lafite will use Prooftag as anti-fraud measure

Chateau Lafite Rothschild is to seal all its bottles, including wines from the 2009 vintage, with the Prooftag bubble seal - a capsule with a 13-numbered code which authenticates individual bottles and a unique bubble code that cannot be reproduced. The Prooftag technology enables bubbles to be generated in the core of the material in a totally random fashion. The combination of the bubble code and the alphanumeric code enables you to authenticate your bottle and access information about the bottle, previously registered by the Château and stored in a database.

Fraud is an increasing problem, especially in China, where Chinese consumers have a one in two chance of buying a fake bottle of Lafite, according to James de Roany, advisor to the French government on wine and spirit exports. Prooftag was accredited by the Chinese authorities 18 months ago and is used by some government agencies for the delivery of confidential documents.

As well as Lafite, two other Bordeaux First Growths, Chateau Margaux and Chateau Latour also use the system.