This is mostly a radio from Parax. I'm your host, Christopher Kimball. Chances are when

you think of Italy, you of course think of pizza. But to understand how they came to

be, you have to understand a phenomenon called the pizza effect.

It's a term that was coined by a Hindu scholar to describe yoga. Because yoga in India

was not a big thing. And then it became really popular abroad. And then it came back to

India as something, you know, which was to be now revalorized and respected. And the

same thing happens with pizza.

Later on in the show, we're tracing the origins of the world's most popular national dishes.

But now a look at some of the biggest cases of wine fraud. Starting first with Bordeaux

in 1973, when winemakers were accused of adulterating at least 3 million bottles of wine,

a newscast from the Associated Press labeled the scandal as wine gift.

Some of the most prominent and respected firms in Bordeaux have made illegal profits

amounting to more than a million pounds. The House of Cruz, founded 160 years ago, is

one of 11 companies alleged to have doctored cheap table wines with chemicals to change

their taste, color and smell, and the switching labels on bottles of red bordeaux.

We're joined now by author Rebecca Gibb to share the long history of wine fraud over

the last 3,000 years. Her book is called Vintage Crime. Rebecca, welcome to Milk Street.

Thank you for having me.

We're talking about wine fraud. And you say there are two types. There's when someone

is putting an additive into the bottle ostensibly to make wine taste better. And then there's

people who sell inexpensive wines with labels that look like it's rather an expensive bottle.

But let's take the first case. This is something you write about in Vintage Crime. You say

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