Following the discovery of 14,000 bottles of fake Penfolds wine for sale in China in November, Wine Australia had to concede it can't keep track of the extent counterfeit Australian wine is being sold in the country.

"We don't have any data which makes it the perfect crime," says Wine Australia's general counsel Rachel Triggs. "It is extremely hard to work out how much is going on."

One solution to the problem has been developed by Australian business YPB which has created a specially designed serialised QR code with an embedded covert tracer.

YPB Group chief executive John Houston. Credit:Jessica Hromas

The ProtectCode covert tracer enables wine producers to track and trace every bottle and batch of wine throughout the entire supply chain using a small handheld scanner.