Earlier this year, consumers were shocked at a program broadcasted by Vietnam National Television about “the hyper-speed winemaking technology”. In which, it took about 30 minutes to mass-produce hundreds of counterfeit bottles of wine having poor quality. According to this program, a small amount of coloring solution, flavoring chemicals, and a white liquid with alcohol smell could be used to make a bunch of wine bottles with various domestic and foreign brands.

Picture of making counterfeit wines

The increasing demand for wines is one of the main reasons why wines are counterfeited constantly, especially on the occasion of the Lunar New Year.

“People who counterfeit wines have many insidious tricks to produce and distribute their products into the market under the names of domestic or imported wines. If you are not a connoisseur, it will be difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake, creating the risk of making a wrong purchase due to foreign labels”, said Duc Trung, a well-known wine distributor in Hanoi.

In fact, a bottle of wine seems to be small, but it requires a huge combination of process, materials, production lines and workforce. Hence, experts said that consumers should be careful with cheap, inferior wines because they can be harmful to health.

“Consumers should purchase products from prestigious domestic and international wine brands that have official distribution systems”, Mr. Trung added.

Informed by the Vietnam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association, there are currently more than 15 enterprises producing and bottling wine in Viet Nam with an annual capacity increase of about 12-13 million liters. According to the General Statistics Office, the number of imported wines has risen by about 25% per year since 2014. Particularly in 2010, the total value of imported wine reached US $53.2 million, an increase of 85% compared to 2009.