An Italian oenologist has been engaged by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture to patrol the bars and restaurants of Italy as part of a crackdown on fake Prosecco wine.

Andrea Battistella, who has been dubbed by the Italian media ‘007 Prosecco’, is being paid to make sure that customers are served with the original sparkling wine and not with a cheaper imitation.

He has been given public security agent powers by Italy’s agriculture ministry to check that the white wine comes only in bottles displaying the certifying DOC label and is not served from a carafe or on tap.

He is to make surprise visits to supermarkets and wine bars across the whole Veneto region and refer violations to authorities. Fake Prosecco sellers face fines of up to €20,000.

Being the only ‘Prosecco agent’ operating on European soil, he has to largely rely on tip-offs from other food special agents or from Italy’s Consortium for the Protection of Prosecco.

Prosecco, an EU-protected dry wine originally from Italy’s northeastern regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, has been at the centre of a quarrel between Italy and Croatia over Proshek, a traditional Dalmatian wine.

According to Battistella, the biggest threat to the Italian wine’s status comes from wine producers, particularly in Australia and Brazil, who have flooded the EU and US market with similar fizzy wines.