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Italian police seize falsely labeled wine bottles

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Published May 29, 2014 5:52pm ET
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Italian police seize falsely labeled wine bottles
Bottles of wine falsely labeled as prized Brunello di Montalcino are displayed during a press conference in Siena, Italy, Thursday, May 29, 2014. Italian police have seized about 30,000 bottles of wine falsely labeled as prized Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico and other premium wines. Siena Carabinieri Col. Marco Grandini said investigators were alerted to the fraud by consumers who recognized the impostors as "normal table wine." With a bottle of Brunello running some 30 euros ($40), Grandini estimated the fraud in the hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars). (AP Photo/Paolo Lazzeroni) | Paolo Lazzeroni

ROME (AP) — Italian investigators said Thursday they seized 30,000 bottles of falsely labeled premium wine from central Italy, after savvy consumers who realized that the Brunello di Montalcino they were sipping turned out to be “normal table wine” alerted authorities of the fraud.

With a bottle of Brunello going for around 30 euros ($40), the fraud is estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of euros (dollars), said Col. Marco Grandini of the Siena branch of the Carabinieri military police.

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