Here too, atomic testing is useful:

“So to get around this, a second test on the wine itself was devised by Philippe Hubert at the Centre for Nuclear Studies.

It uses a gamma ray detector to study the levels of radioactive particles in the wine, in this case caesium-137, that have been present in the atmosphere since the era of atomic weapons testing began after World War II…

The measurements show that caesium levels rise dramatically from 1951, reaching a peak at around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and then dropping dramatically, reflecting the atmospheric test ban treaty agreed by Presidents Kennedy and Khrushchev in 1963.

The next spike in the data comes in 1986, caused by fall-out from the nuclear accident at Chernobyl.

“If you have an old wine, say from 1860, for example; if you see some caesium in such a bottle, then immediately you can tell that this bottle is a fake one.” “