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‘More than 7,000 litres’ of wine seized by Portuguese authorities

29 October 2024 By Louis Thomas

Portugal’s Autoridade de Segurança Alimentar e Económica (ASAE) has announced that it undertook an operation around the city of Gouveia in response to “possible fraudulent practices” concerning wine labelling.

In a statement, the ASAE, which in English stands for the ‘Economic and Food Safety Authority’, shared that the issue concerned white and rosé wines which had been “bottled and labeled, ready to be introduced to the market and whose labelling had not been communicated to IVV – Institute of Vinha e do Vinho, I.P.”.

“In the case of wine products without a Denomination of Origin or Geographical Indication, the bottler or the person responsible for placing the wine product on the market, is obliged to use it in advance on the national market or in other countries, upon delivering a copy of the labels to the IVV in legal terms defined by this competent entity,” the statement explained.

As a result of the incident, which took place in Gouveia, to the east of Porto, the ASAE revealed that 1,714.50 litres of rosé and 5,290l of white wine, as well as 20,870 labels, had been seized. Supposedly, this quantity of wine, equivalent to more than 9,300 75 centilitre bottles, is worth €19,000.

It has not been disclosed yet which producers have been affected/involved in the incident – it has also not been established yet whether the failure to declare the labelling to the IVV, which is done online, was deliberate, or an oversight.

Recently, an international wine fraud syndicate was busted for selling counterfeit Grand Cru wines, with six suspects arrested in Turin, Milan and Paris.