(TDB) - Italian police confiscated thousands of bottles of table wine masquerading as high-end appellations, some selling for as much as $25,000 each.

For many Americans, sipping a glass of fine Italian red wine conjures up an image of lush sun-drenched vineyards, oaken barrels and ancient cellars to help ease the blow to the pocketbook. After all, spending $75 or more for a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino or dishing out for its lesser cousin Chianti Classico should come with the guarantee that what’s in the bottle is what’s on the label. But after a three-year investigation into suspected wine fraud in Italy, it appears increasingly likely that your vino tinto is actually vino finto, the Italian word for fake.

This week, Italian police confiscated 30,000 bottles of Brunello, Chianti Classico and Sagrantino di Montefalco from warehouses, wine merchants, grocery stores and restaurants after discovering that the bottles with the more expensive labels contained common table wine that is only worth about a dollar a liter.

Among the vineyards victimized in the wine fraud scandal is the reputable wine estate owned by the family of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, which has produced wines in Tuscany for three centuries. Alberto Bocelli, the tenor’s brother, told The Daily Telegraph that the scam could mean people stop buying their wines. “Aside from the economic damage, and the damage to the image of our high-quality product, we’re very saddened to think how disappointed consumers will be left by these deplorable actions,” he said.