Last Wednesday Italian police forces arrested  five people in North Italy, following an investigation involving counterfeit Oltrepò Pavese DOC wine.  The investigation, led by Pavia prosecutors, is the latest in a sequence of fake-wine scandals in Italy.  According to investigators, the arrested individuals (all industry specialists) sourced wine of inferior quality, produced with grapes not certified as organic, or with the addition of aromas or carbon dioxide, and then labelled and sold the product as organic, DOC and IGT.

In 2014, another investigation involved other wine producers from Oltrepò Pavese area, accused of not respecting the canons of DOC and IGT procedures and labelling, in particular for Pinot Grigio wine.