(AFR) - One of Bordeaux's most renowned winemakers, whose bottles sell for up to £2500 ($5184) each, has been found guilty of fraud over the misuse of almost £450,000 of EU subsidies.

Doubt was also cast on claims made by Loïc Pasquet, creator of Liber Pater wines, to have revived long-lost grape varieties from the 19th century.

The case has raised uncomfortable questions about how France spends some €280 million ($443 million) of European aid on its wine industry every year. Bordeaux criminal court was told that FranceAgriMer, the body that distributes EU agricultural subsidies in France, had given Mr Pasquet €592,000 to help promote his wine in Russia, China and Brazil.

However, Catherine Figerou, the state prosecutor, contended that the promotional campaigns were a figment of Mr Pasquet's imagination.

"He could not ignore the fact that the services were fictional," she said. Mr Pasquet retorted that he had been tricked by a "crooked" company in Shanghai.

The vines are, according to its owner, tended painstakingly by hand, with only 3000 bottles produced in good years and none in bad to ensure top quality is maintained.

Mr Pasquet has won plaudits in France for planting grape varieties such as Castets, Mancin and Saint-Macaire which were all but wiped out by the phylloxera plague that hit Bordeaux in the mid-1800s. But Caroline Baret, the presiding judge, said: "None of these varieties have ever been used in your wine."

Mr Pasquet replied that he had spoken about "researching" old wines, but "that did not mean they were present in my bottles".

Critics have suggested that the scandal shows how wine connoisseurs can be fooled by clever marketing.

An eminent critic described the result as "silky" and said that young Liber Pater wines tasted as though they were 20 years old.

But the court was told that the grapes used by Mr Pasquet were of the merlot and cabernet varieties common in the region. He was given a suspended one-year prison sentence and a €10,000 fine and told to pay back €230,000 of the subsidies he had received.

Mr Pasquet, whose family has already reimbursed €300,000 of the EU aid received, said he would appeal against his conviction, and denies wrongdoing.