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Form of adulteration of wine; see there.

Wine adulteration (colloquially referred to as "pimping") is the deliberate and incorrect manipulation of wine production in violation of wine legislation, carried out with deceptive or fraudulent intent. The aim is to "improve" the flavour or quality of the wine with prohibited additives and thus falsely pretend a certain or better quality, to dilute the quantities of high-quality wines by mixing them with simple, cheaply produced bulk wine or simply with water, and to market wines under prestigious names or vintages by means of false labelling using genuine labels and/or bottles.

Introduction of wine laws

Throughout history, there have always been different and often changing views on what exactly constitutes wine adulteration. What is now considered to be slavishness may have been a widespread practice just a few decades ago. Even today, some techniques are country-specific and regulated differently, particularly in Europe and the New World. Three significant examples are the regulations regarding fortification, acidification and sweetening. The introduction of strict wine laws in many wine-growing countries at the end of the 19th century had a positive effect. They had already existed in some wine-growing regions before that. However, it was of course not possible to completely prevent tampering.

Falsification of origin

The 18th century is considered the "century of wine scandals". The enormous demand for port wine in England led to shortages from 1730 onwards. For this reason, alcohol, elderberry juice, ginger, pepper, cinnamon and sugar were added to simpler wines in the Douro. The positive effect of this was that in 1756 the port wine region was declared one of the first areas of protected origin and strict laws were passed. In Bordeaux, it was common practice to blend wines for the English market with high-alcohol, simple wines from other regions (Rhône, Spain). When there was a great shortage of wine in France due to phylloxera and mildew , sultana wine was produced in large quantities from 1880 onwards. In the 19th century, there were mass counterfeits of Hungarian Tokay in many countries, for which there were even detailed recipes.

The major breakthrough in the fight against counterfeiting began with the definition of controlled designations of origin. These originated in France with the appellation system from the beginning of the 20th century. However, wine counterfeiting and adulteration naturally continued with increasingly sophisticated and difficult-to-verify methods. This is because counterfeiters also benefit from new scientific findings. One...

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