Italian investigators, together with authorities in Bulgaria, France, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, have prevented brazen wine falsification. According to an announcement by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and several media, a Bulgarian winery wanted to sell thousands of bottles of cheaply produced wine as "Franciacorta Prosecco DOC Spumante". A first shipment was confiscated in France. The delivery of further bottles was prevented by the "Ispettorato centrale repressione frodi" (Icqrf), the central supervisory authority for food control and fraud prevention in Italy.
A total of 29 companies are accused by the investigators of having filled a total of five million litres of cheapest wine produced under undocumented conditions as "Franciacorta Prosecco DOC". The quantity of wine did not appear in the stock books of the accused wineries.
So far, it is unclear whether "Franciacorta Prosecco DOC" has also been distributed in other countries.
(uka)