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Magrez luxury gifts rebuffed by journalists
April 22, 2008
By Jane Anson
Wine magnate Bernard Magrez has outraged a group of journalists by offering each of them a Cartier wristwatch worth €1,650 (£1,322/$2,641).
The watches were distributed after a press lunch hosted by Magrez and French actor Gerard Depardieu on 26 March. The lunch was held at the Alain Ducasse restaurant at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris. Around 50 journalists attended – including wine critic and ex-Revue du Vin de France editor Thierry Desseauve, Philippe Bidalon from L'Express magazine and Gérard Muteaud of Le Nouvel Observateur.
Upon leaving the lunch, journalists were offered a bag that contained a press kit and a box that most did not open until after leaving the restaurant. The box contained the watch, and a certificate of authenticity signed by a Bordeaux jeweller.
One journalist, who requested anonymity, told decanter.com> that many journalists discussed the situation and agreed among themselves that keeping the watches could be misconstrued. It is understood that the majority have been returned.
In response to the gift, Desseauve wrote a letter to Magrez, detailing that he had donated the watch to French homeless charity Restaurants du Coeur.
'Together with my colleague Michel Bettane {also ex-Revue du Vin de France}, who was not there, we wanted to show Mr Magrez that his gesture would not change our professional attitude towards him, nor our way of judging wines. We felt the most judicious response would be to give an equivalent sum to a relevant charitable body,' Desseauve wrote in an email.
'At 72 I've been around the block a few times, and I know what you should and shouldn't do with respect to journalists,' Magrez told decanter.com.
'I am not so stupid as to think I can buy them. This lunch was held to commemorate over 1,700 vintages [collectively] at my three greatest vineyards, and I chose to mark the occasion by engraving a watch. If a few of the invited journalists choose not to keep the watch, that is of course their prerogative.'
The former head of Cartier is Alain Dominique Perrin, a friend of Magrez who recently commented that Bordeaux pricing was immoral, and that first growths could not cost more than €15 (£12/$24) per bottle to produce.
The incident was first published on political blog site bakchich.info, with the comment, 'When you produce an average-quality wine, nothing works better than a pretty present in order to get the specialist press onside.'
The Bernard Magrez Group has an annual turnover of €40m (£24m/$48m), with over 35 wine estates around the world.
Have your say...
To post your comment on this story, email us at news@decanter.com, making sure the relevant headline is in the subject field
 Could it be that the journalists in question found the watch a tad on the bargain-basement side, at least by Cartier standards, and were insulted by the insinuation they could be influenced so cheaply? Gregory Sims, Berlin
Talk about bribery! In the pharmaceutical industry it would end up in the court. Nils Stormby, MD, PhD
Like some of his wines, Bernard Magrez has simply been more grand and obvious in the game that is played across Bordeaux ..... providing freebies (expensive wines, dinners, hotel stays, etc.) to those who might be of use to them in pimping their goods, whether they be journalists, bloggers, or critics. A new low here, surely, but the water was not deep to begin with. A Skroback, New York, NY
On the surface, it certainly looks like naked bribing. I'm surprised the journalists had such scruples. Why didn't they just accept the watches and write according to their consciences, vis-a-vis Mr. Magrez's wines? Then everyone could have been a winner.
If Mr. Magrez would like to send some fine gifts to me in Dublin, I promise to campaign tirelessly on his behalf. Paul J Kiernan, Dublin
Well, very honestly, it would be very kind of Mr. Magrez to send us these watches as we have been selling the Bernard Magrez wines in India now for over 2 years, specially the Pape Clement which is one of his best wines.
Arjun Dhall, Thats Dhall Foods and Beverages, New Delhi, India
It might seem a little rude to treat journalists like this. But what to think about all the wine magazines around the world, in which if you want a good review on your wine you just have to buy
advertisement.
G Roussy Saumur, Loire, France
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