Around 400,000 bottles of cheap wine falsely labelled as being from the Mont Tauch Cooperative in Southern France have been uncovered on sale in China.

Fake copycats of Mont Tauch’s Fitou Reserve des Tamaris were discovered in China last year, the cooperative confirmed to just-drinks today (24 February).

Tests at Mont Tauch’s laboratory in France revealed that the bottles contained inferior quality bulk wine from South America.

The discovery highlights ongoing concern over copycat products in China, despite increased efforts by Chinese authorities to stamp out the fraud.

“Mont Tauch takes this incident very seriously, and the coop is now working closely with its Chinese agent and dedicated sales manager for China to ensure it has better control over Fitou and its image in that market and to inform distributors that Mont Tauch is the only supplier of genuine AOP Fitou into China,” said the cooperative.

It said that China is a fast-growing market for its premium Fitou wines and “this incident has not changed the coop’s desire to do business in China”.

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The group said that it knows of no more counterfeit wine has been produced following last year’s discovery.

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