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The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority carried out controls of food safety, quality and labelling of both domestic and imported flavoured and fortified wines.

All 23 samples taken (10 domestic and 13 imported wines) complied with the requirements laid on food safety and met all the quality parameters. The wines were mostly correctly labelled, only in two cases the inspectors identified that the producer did not specify all the prescribed data on the label or they were false.

The inspections of wines were mainly carried out in distribution warehouses and wholesale warehouses. The inspectors focused also on the method of selling wines in retail shops. Of the 44 shops inspected, in 13 cases (i.e. 30%) the wines were offered to consumers together with fruit wines. Although, the Law on viticulture and wine production prohibits keeping the wines made of grapes in the same position together with fruit wines or other wine beverages, so as to avoid accidental confusion of consumers.

The inspectors ordered in such cases to take corrective actions, or they imposed a penalty.

Flavoured wines are received by adding aromatic substances or permitted flavouring extracts, flavouring agents or herbs. They also are put more sugar into and for increasing the contents of alcohol, natural spirit is added. The consumers can come across flavoured wines in the retail trade network labelled as Vermouth, bitter flavoured wine or Americano. The difference depends mainly on the flavouring used: wormwood is added Vermouth, quinine is added to the bitter flavoured wine, which can also be labelled with this name, while the wine labelled as Americano is flavoured with herbal substances containing gentian and wormwood, and at the same time it is coloured yellow or red.

The fortified wines are defined above all with a certain contents of alcohol. The respective law allows in such wines minimum 15% and maximum 22% of pure alcohol by volume, and at least 17.5 % of the total alcohol by volume.

These wines include also Port wines. But this label can only be applied to wines coming from Portugal. Basically, the Decree No.63/1987, Col. of L., issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, prohibits any use of the name "Porto", "Oporto", "Port" or "Portwine" or other translations whatsoever of the original name anywhere on the labels of wines that are not of Portuguese origin. CAFIA assesses such cases as deliberate deception of consumers