Today, wine fraud involves more sophistication, making detection and prevention an ever-increasing challenge for both the big and small wineries. Wine fraud goes beyond just "watering down" good wine.

One California winery that produces cabernets that can sell for $400 a bottle uses a coated radio frequency chip, similar to what is imbedded in one's passport, on the back label as a single means of protecting its premium wines.

Worldwide, 20 percent of the wine sold is counterfeit, and in Asian countries, as high as 50 percent, especially for French wines. The empty high-end wine bottles are simply refilled with inferior product as pretty much standard operating procedure in China.

Additional precautions go from encouraging consumers and retailers to break the bottles after consumption to something called a "CapSeal," which is connected to an antenna on the neck of the bottle, just above the cork. When the capsule is removed, the tag becomes deactivated, preventing the bottle's reuse.

Other anti-counterfeiting tactics include QR codes, inks and other materials that can be coded, and near-field communication microcircuits that respond to radio-frequency sensors included in smartphones.