When wine meets crime

Wine is not really on the radar of the average crook as it's fairly bulky and most 'fences' are not experts on the vintages. The big crime story in the trade over the last few weeks has been that Michael Broadbent - our greatest living authority on older 'fine wines' – has had his bicycle stolen.

The criminal element in wine these days is usually much more sophisticated than that.

At production level, there have always been scandals involving the mixing of cheap grapes with more expensive wine. In the 1970s, the Cruze family was nearly destroyed and had to sell Chateau

Margaux following allegations that their Negociante Company had blended Algerian wine with hallowed Bordeaux classified growth.

More recently though, tankers have been seen at the dead of night driving from the south of France, where Chardonnay grapes cost €0.5 per kilogram, up to Champagne where the same grapes sell for €6 per kilogram – a decent margin by anyone's standards.

The growing skill of forgers has led to an increase in fake bottled wine at the very top of the market: Chateau Lafite (the wine in Eastern markets) and Chateau Petrus have been particularly targeted. Moves are afoot to microchip these very expensive wines so that their authenticity can be proved.

Diligent buyers, however, would never purchase really fine wine without first being absolutely sure of its provenance and storage. Indeed, fine wines