Italian Police Seize 9,000 Bottles Of Fake Moët & Chandon

Nine thousand bottles of fake Moët & Chandon Champagne were seized by police near Venice, Italy, The Guardian reported. Wine counterfeiters had bottled approximately $382,000 worth of bubbly table wine in a shed outside of the town of Padua. Those bottles were just a fraction of the nearly $2 million of wine they might have been able to sell had they used up the 40,000 labels police found.

Eight counterfeiters were caught in the shed with the wine after police spotted a bottle without a serial number during a separate investigation that took place last year but was announced on Monday. Though the origin of the wine hasn't been announced, it's possible that it came from one of the numerous nearby wineries that produces Prosecco, some of which is sold on taps in Padua for as little as a few euros a glass.

The Guardia di Finanza, which handles financial crimes in Italy, said the bust was "one of the most significant seizures of fake labeled contraband Champagne in Europe." The investigation is ongoing and, so far, the police haven't announced any arrests. As for the bottles of wine, they will be donated to "associations" in the region.