A dozen French winemakers and traders have been found guilty of a massive scam to sell 18 million bottles of fake Pinot Noir to a leading U.S buyer. The judge in Carcassonne, south-west France, said the producers and traders had severely damaged the reputation of the Langedoc region. The winemakers more than doubled profits passing off the wine to E and J Gallo under its Red Bicyclette brand. In a statement on its website it said it was deeply disappointed to learn its supplier, Sieur d'Arques, had been found guilty of selling falsely labelled French Pinot Noir.The court ruled the winemakers had deliberately and repeatedly mislabelled the wine as one of the more expensive varieties of grape in order to get a better price from E and J Gallo. The Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir single grape wine is hugely popular in the United States.