Brits are being warned about a major issue. A fraud expert said the UK market is being flooded with. Maureen Downey, known as the "Sherlock Holmes of wine," has revealed that organised criminals are producing "high-end counterfeits" of labels, including Yellow Tail, one of the largest brands in UK supermarkets.

The Australian brand, which sells , Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Pinot Grigio, can be purchased from stores such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, and Morrisons. The major brand sells 13.5 million cases across the globe. However, the expert says that wine bottles are being replicated "to a professional degree" like never before.

Maureen Downey told the Wine Blast podcast: "An Asian organised crime gang has partnered with a European organised wine gang to flood the market with counterfeit Yellow Tail.

"The crime rings are spending half a million dollars to get the same digital printer used by the professional producers. They're replicating bottles to an unprecedented level."

The expert emphasised that it'll be very hard for those who do not drink the wine regularly to tell the difference, meaning the average consumer could be in trouble. She added: "They're no longer making old and rare bottles because you need period glass, you have to age the labels and make sure the cork is ok.

"Now, they just have it all made to the same specs that producers use. It's a different game. It's much more money. The average consumer is pretty consumer."

The expert highlighted that a frequent Yellow Tail drinker would be able to spot a counterfeit more easily than somebody drinking a rare or vintage wine, "because if you drink Coca-Cola every day and somebody gives you a Pespi, you're going to know the difference."

Many fake producers hide their anti-fraud measures so well that even distributors often do not know what to keep an eye out for. In 2021, trading standards launched an investigation after supermarket customers in the West Midlands claimed that bottles of Yellow Tail did not taste right, reports .

KVK supermarket in Sutton Coldfield had its alcohol licence removed after 41 bottles of Yellow Tail were discovered to be fake. The following year, a Leicestershire shopkeeper had to pay £4,000 after a huge 142 bottles of fake Yellow Tail were found in his shop. Kannan Vigneswaran admitted to buying the wine from a man in an unmarked van offering a deal.

Peter Richards, presenter of Wine Blast, said: "It's not just fine and rare wines. You constantly read about producers or merchants being convicted for blending X into X and calling it Z."

He also said that a source at Yellow Tail had confirmed the severity of the issue, revealing that a criminal gang in Moldova had apparently produced up to 100,000 cases of counterfeit Yellow Tail.

Simon Lawson, managing director at Casella Family Brands Europe, told the : "We want to reassure consumers that counterfeit [Yellow Tail] wine is minimal and confined to a very small number of independent convenience stores in the UK market. The large number of cases mentioned in the Wine Blast podcast referred to an issue in 2019, a small part of which made it to the UK, and this has since been largely resolved. We continue to work closely with Trading Standards to minimise the risk of counterfeit [yellow tail] wines reaching consumers.

"Our supply chain is extremely robust, with all major supermarkets, wholesalers and off-licences purchasing directly from us. This ensures there is no risk of counterfeit [yellow tail] wines being sold through these retailers. We take pride in our ability to trace our wines directly back to our winery in Yenda, Australia, guaranteeing the highest quality products.

"If consumers suspect they have encountered a counterfeit product, we encourage them to report it by emailing us at cfbecustomercare@casellafamilybrands.com. We will assist in verifying the authenticity of the [yellow tail] wine purchased."