The technology is being pioneered by winemakers in Australia and Italy, using holograms, invisible ink and unique numbers etched onto bottles.

Penfolds, the Australian label, and Brunello, the Italian brand, are in the forefront of the high-tech methods to counter “wine piracy” — in which forgeries of expensive labels are fixed to inferior wines. Old vintages of Brunello can fetch several thousand pounds.

Paolo Bianchini, one of the main producers, has grafted holograms into the wrapping that seals the cork on his 2001 vintage, priced at £21. The hologram is made by the German Kurz group, which supplies the European Central Bank. “It costs a lot at the start but you can absorb it in time,” he said.

From this summer the makers of Brunello are also using a new way of printing a code stamped on the neck label. “We are using a paper similar to banknotes,” said Stefano Campatelli, director of the consortium. “The ink becomes phosphorescent under ultraviolet light.”

Penfolds Grange, which can fetch up to £1,500 a bottle for its best vintages, has introduced a five-digit alphanumeric code laser-etched into the bottle.

It has also opened “recorking clinics”, where Peter Gago, its chief wine-maker, opens clients’ bottles, tastes them and then, to prove their authenticity, marks them with a code that can be seen only under a “black light”.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Catalogue of failings ‘leaves others at risk’
• Tourists told to stay away amid Venice floods
• Google generation has no need for rote learning