Wine drinkers are being misled, raising concerns about a lack of consumer protection and transparency in wine company operations. The journalists travelled to Spain, Portugal, France and the Netherlands to track down wine villains, including a major fraudster in Bordeaux, and interviewied whistleblowers, public officials, winemakers, wine companies and farmers.
Be it Bordeaux, Chianti, or Champagne, wine producers in Europe are fiercely protective of their appellations. But the industry and wine consumers have been rocked in recent years by fraud scandals involving Spanish bulk wine being mislabelled and sold as table wine or appellation wine, particularly in France. Struggling vineyards are feeling the heat of climate change and rising costs. With law enforcement feared to be lagging behind, can the fraudsters be stopped? The project shows that the wine you buy may not come from the country that its bottle suggests - and some winemakers are even watering down their product. Is this a response to the climate crisis?
Photo Credit: Barnaby Eales
