Fine wine or ripped sip?

Fine wine or ripped sip?

Wine buyers in China might need to take a harder look at their bottle label to know if their Aussie wine is actually true blue.

According to SMH's Jeni Port (fitting name for a journalist writing on alcoholic beverages!), Chinese producers could be stamping their own wines with 'Australian-made' and reworking the logos of some our most famous and loved brands (Benfolds, anyone?) to fool Chinese consumers.

Not only does this weaken the reputation of Australian wine brands, it also threatens the wine export industry that is helping to keep our big wine-makers and small-scale producers in business.

Apparently, cases of counterfeited brands and trademarks are for the individual wine companies to pursue, with the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation only involving itself if a wine labelled 'Australian' turns out to be non-Australian.

Find out more about this delicate issue on the SMH site here, or Voice of America here.  The above image comes courtesy of Beijing Boyce.  

• Australia
• Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation
• Australian wines
• Beijing Boyce
• Benfolds
• China
• counterfeit
• Jeni Port
• Penfolds
• reputation
• SMH
• Voice of America
• wine

---