Gangs spend £500,000 faking wine bottles and labels

A sophisticated operation is flooding the UK with increasingly convincing counterfeit versions of best-selling wine bottles manufactured on an “unprecedented level”, according to one expert.

A wine fraud expert claims that the average consumer “is pretty screwed” as a result of increasingly sophisticated wine fraud taking place in the UK. The step-up in the quality of fake bottles comes as counterfeiters employ identical digital printing specs as a wine’s authentic producer, making it harder to spot the difference between the genuine item and a fake.

A particular target of the crime ring is Australian wine brand Yellow Tail, with a number of retail stores in the UK having had their alcohol license revoked following reports of fake Yellow Tail wines sold on the premises in recent years.

“An Asian organised crime gang has partnered with a European organised wine gang to flood the market with counterfeit Yellow Tail,” wine fraud specialist Maureen Downey told the Wine Blast podcast.

“The crime rings are spending half a million dollars to get the same digital printer used by the professional producers. They’re replicating bottles to an unprecedented level.”

Downey explains that producing counterfeit wines at the value end of the price spectrum can actually be more challenging than ripping off a rare or fine wine, though certainly high-end brands such as Penfolds and Lafite have fallen foul of counterfeiters in the past. The reason for this, Downey says, is that consumers are able to drink affordable brands such as Yellow Tail more regularly, enabling them to quickly identify when the wine tastes different than usual. Those investing in rare or expensive bottles may never have tried the wine or vintage before, and therefore do not share the same familiarity with it.

Strategic label revamp

Yellow Tail has allegedly revealed that a criminal gang in Moldova produced up to 100,000 cases of counterfeit Yellow Tail, which may explain why the brand recently revamped its wine labels.

The new-look bottle, released in March 2025, is the first time the brand has switched up its design for 25 years. The refreshed look features a more striking colour contrast and additional flavour descriptions on the label as well as a facelift for the brand’s ‘Roo’ mascot, whose back has been rounded and attributes tweaked to give it more of a cartoonish feel. Though Yellow Tail claimed the redesign was intended to ensure shelf stand-out “in an increasingly competitive market”, it’s fair to assume that the new label is also harder to replicate.

“After more than 20 years, it was time for a strategic update, one that enhanced the design without losing its distinctiveness,” said Libby Nutt, general manager of marketing and export sales, at the time. “The wine market is increasingly competitive, making shelf standout and strong branding more important than ever. This refresh builds on our existing brand assets, making them even more recognisable.”

Minimal impact

Casella Family Brands, which owns Yellow Tail, is said to have launched a legal investigation into the counterfeiters, but with little hope of a conviction.  But despite the legal action the company claims the impact has been “minimal”.

“We want to reassure consumers that counterfeit [Yellow Tail] wine is minimal and confined to a very small number of independent convenience stores in the UK market,” Frankie Harding, head of communications for Casella Family Brands, tells db.

“The large number of cases mentioned in the Wine Blast podcast referred to an issue in 2019, a small part of which made it to the UK, and this has since been largely resolved. We continue to work closely with Trading Standards to minimise the risk of counterfeit [Yellow Tail] wines reaching consumers.

“Our supply chain is extremely robust, with all major supermarkets, wholesalers and off-licences purchasing directly from us… We take pride in our ability to trace our wines directly back to our winery in Yenda, Australia, guaranteeing the highest quality products.”

Read more from Maureen Downey on why wine fraud will continue to be a problem here.

 

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