Italian police break up ring that was counterfeiting celebrated super Tuscan red wine

Italian police with some of the cases of counterfeit wine they seized

Credit: Guardia di Finanza

Italian police have broken up a sophisticated criminal syndicate which was producing thousands of bottles of counterfeit wine and passing it off as one of the country’s most celebrated super Tuscan reds.

Two men, a father and son from Milan, were arrested and another 11 people placed under investigation for allegedly producing the fake bottles of Bolgheri Sassicaia from the Tenuta San Guido, an estate on the Tuscan coast.

They are accused of buying cheap wine from Sicily, bottling it and passing it off as Bolgheri Sassicaia, which was named Wine of the Year in 2018 by the publication Wine Spectator.

Police said they had the capacity to produce 4,200 bottles a month, bringing in around €400,000.

The criminal syndicate was producing counterfeit bottles of one of Italy's most celebrated super Tuscans

Credit: Guardia di Finanza

They paid great attention to detail, reproducing a hologram on the wine labels which is meant to prevent such counterfeiting.

They even found the exact same type and weight of paper used for the genuine labels, as well as the identical corks.

The criminal enterprise had an international dimension — the bottles came from Turkey, the labels, corks and wooden cases from Bulgaria and most of the buyers were Russian, South Korean and Chinese.

They were attracted by the prospect of buying what they thought was one of Italy’s finest super Tuscans for 70% less than its market value.

The wine inside the bottles was nowhere near the quality of a genuine Sassicaia, but it was not bad.

“It’s pretty good but I’d need to give it to people who have no knowledge of these things,” an intermediary was recorded as saying during a conversation that was wiretapped by Italy’s finance police, the Guardia di Finanza.

The counterfeiting ring was discovered by chance when a police officer came across a case of the counterfeit wine in a street in Empoli, a town in Tuscany, after it apparently fell from a lorry. 

Inside they found a handwritten note with mobile phone numbers  which belonged to the two men who were eventually arrested.

Genuine Bolgheri Sassicaia from the Tenuta San Guido sells for around €210 a bottle, according to Wine Spectator. The magazine described it as “one of the great wines of Tuscany and Italy.”

The wine “ages magnificently” and boasts “rich and concentrated black currant, blackberry, violet, mineral and spice flavours allied to a dense structure.”