French winemaker Didier Chopin has been convicted of making and selling hundreds of thousands of bottles of fake Champagne.

Chopin added carbon dioxide and and liqueur syrup to still wine from Spain and France. When the fraud was revealed by his former employees in 2023, Chopin fled to Morocco, where he was later arrested and jailed for bouncing cheques.

A court in Reims sentenced Chopin to 18 months in jail, with an additional 30 months suspended. His wife Karine was handed a two-year suspended sentence on the same charges of fraud and theft of a protected brand name.

Didier was ordered to pay damages to injured parties, including the champagne growers and merchants association and several buyers.

Based in the Marne Valley, the couple bottled their first Champagne in 1989, made from grapes grown on her family’s estate.

“I made a mistake, I am ruined and I have nothing else to add,” Chopin told reporters.

Chopin, 56, was also barred from ever running a company again and from working in the champagne industry for at least five years.

A second part of the trail relating to the export of the fake Champagne outside of France has been adjourned to 3 February 2026.