Fake Bordeaux wine flooding China market

Fake bottles of Lafite-Rothschild grab headlines, but according to Bordeaux's wine trade council, only a small portion of wine fraud involves counterfeit labels of real châteaus. A much bigger worry for Bordeaux is wine labeled with fictitious châteaus using Bordeaux AOCs. "The main issue is the misuse of the name 'Bordeaux,'" said Allan Sichel, a négociant and member of the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB), during a recent meeting at the French Consulate in Hong Kong.

But Bordeaux has little recourse against these Chinese-made Bordeauxs, because Bordeaux is not a protected geographic indication (GI) in China. The Bordelais are working to change that.

"Graves Pomerol," "Château Margot," "Chatreal Latour, Bordeaux"—all are fakes on the Chinese market that are easy to spot if you know Bordeaux, but not so easy if you're a Mandarin-speaking customs inspector with little knowledge of wine. 

Normally, trade agreements tackle this issue, but the European Union does not have an agreement with China that protects appellation names, and Bordeaux is losing business to Chinese-made fakes. China bought 42 million bottles of Bordeaux last year. The CIVB believes Chinese consumers could be buying more if every time they reached for Bordeaux they were getting the real thing.