Police crack case of phony Aussie wine

Shanghai's Hongkou district police - assisted by big data provided by Alibaba, China's e-commerce behemoth - have cracked the largest case involving fake Australian wine ever handled in the city.

More than 14,000 bottles of fake Penfolds wine valued at 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) were involved, the police said on Wednesday. Thirteen suspects have been detained, including a man surnamed Dai who achieved sales worth 1.2 million yuan for three months in a row through an online shop on Alibaba's Taobao. Another man, a supplier surnamed Su, was also detained, the police said.

Police said they were alerted in August by Alibaba that a Taobao shop was suspected of selling fake Penfolds wine. Officers purchased wine from the shop and found its quality obviously inferior to the genuine product, from the printing on the package to the quality of the bottles and ingredients.