BEWARE BOGUS BUBBLY

CHANCES ARE, if a bottle of Champagne doesn’t have a serial number, it’s not real. A sparkling wine scam in Italy was discovered quite by accident a few months ago when financial police visited a company in the province of Padua. While there they noticed that a bottle of Moët & Chandon had no serial number on it. That was the first clue that led to the discovery of an alleged counterfeiting ring, one that was turning local sparkling wine into “Champagne”. Officers of the Guardia di Finanza then raided a building near the town of Selvazzano in December and found 92OO bottles of fake Moët & Chandon Imperial Brut inside, worth roughly $38O,OOO at retail. There were also labels for 4O,OOO more bottles – a potential $1.9 million worth – as well as a professional labeling machine. Eight people were arrested in the operation. The investigation into the source of the bottles and labels is ongoing. Lab tests showed the faux Moët was cheap wine from the nearby Prosecco-producing area. “We think these bottles were destined for the markets of Northern Europe, such as Germany,” Lieutenant Colonel Luca Lettere of the Guardia di Finanza di Padova stated. “Someone, originally from the area of Valdobbiadene, who knows the area, where to get the wine labels and bottles with which to create the fake Champagne, made these. He also knows the market and how to deceive the consumer.”