The Art Of Filling Empty Bottles

As with fake fashion handbags sold on the street, there has been a host of labeling manipulations and counterfeits of priceless wines. The news is rattling fine wine purveyors and auction houses alike.

For a small amount of money, one can invest in empty wine bottles from eBay, refill them with inferior wines, and reaffix labels posing as original vintages. The Wall Street Journal reports a California wine auction removed 13 lots from the auction, including bottles with the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti label, due to "apparent label discrepancies."

Wine authenticator Maureen Downey told the WSJ, "We often find it is a very old bottle with a brand new cork but no indication of recorking."  Now, auction houses are stepping up inspection measures, with wines vetted by teams of international experts who look for fraud.

This all makes sense, considering some bottles are fetching up to $540,000, like the single lot of 300 bottles of Chateau Lafite Rothschild at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong.

The Daily Byte is a regular column dedicated to covering interesting food news and trends across the country. Click here for previous columns.