Few wine lovers can have failed to be swayed by the heavy discounts offered in supermarkets.

But many would be horrified if they knew the truth about their cut-price shiraz or chardonnay.

Some brands are little better than alcopops dressed up with flavourings and fancy labels, an investigation claims.

Producers use a host of additives to disguise the flavour or inferior grapes without listing them on the labels. In some cases, they are creating so-called ‘Frankenstein wines’ bulked up with water, sugar and even hydrochloric acid.

In addition, supermarkets stand accused of artificially inflating the price of wine to make discounts seem larger and more attractive.

The inquiry also suggests that only 30 per cent of the champagne sold in this country is worth the high prices demanded by the French producers.

The disturbing findings are reported in a Dispatches programme, which looks at what goes into the 1.5billion bottles of wine consumed in Britain every year.

Malcolm Gluck, author of The Great Wine Swindle, said: ‘Many, many wines are no better than a sort of alcoholic cola. You get artificial yeasts, enzymes, sugar, extracts, tannins, all sorts of things added.’

Win a copy of ‘The Great Wine Swindle How snobs are ruining your wine’ by answering the question below:

Greek wine Retsina’s distinctive flavour comes from what?

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