3000 cases of counterfeit wine found in Shanghai

Police in Songjiang District in Shanghai recently uncovered roughly 3,000 cases of counterfeit Californian wine ‘Carlo Rossi’ worth 800,000 RMB (US$116,262).

Fake bottles of Carlo Rossi discovered in Songjiang, Shanghai (Photo credit: Knews.com)

Two suspects have been arrested including a man surnamed Shi who bought the counterfeit Carlo Rossi – a cheap wine produced in California – from his supplier surnamed Lin, another suspect in the case, reported Shanghai-based Chinese news website Knews.com.

The case came to light after Songjiang’s local Market and Quality Supervision Commission and Songjiang Police Bureau were conducting routine inspections in a local shopping mall.

In one of the shops, there were suspiciously large stocks of Carlo Rossi, whose labels bore slight differences from the authentic wines.

After Carlo Rossi’s staff confirmed the wines in question were indeed counterfeits, the police arrested the shop owner Shi and his supplier Lin.

According to the Chinese report, Shi bought the counterfeit Carlo Rossi from Lin at much cheaper prices, knowing that they were counterfeit wines due to the label discrepancies.

The wines were meant to be sold during the Chinese New Year as demand for wines usually spikes, as Shi later confessed to the police.

Carlo Rossi is distributed by Shanghai-based company Nanfu Food.

The investigation is still ongoing.