Decanter World Wine AwardsAppeal court upholds Red Bicyclette sentences
- Tuesday 18 October 2011
The Court has however made considerable changes to the sentences, imposed by a court in Carcassonne in February 2010.
Ringleader Claude Courset of the négociant company Ducasse, based in Carcassonne, had his suspended prison sentence increased from six to nine months, and his fine cut by a third from €45,000 to €30,000.
Alain Maurel of Vignobles Alain Maurel, and regional president of the Crédit Agricole bank, had his suspended sentence increased from three to four months but his fine reduced by half from €30,000 to €15,000.
The Sieur d’Arques co-operative, which made €1.3m from the fraud, had its fine reduced from €180,000 to €150,000.
Others were not so lucky. Montblanc, the commercial arm of Vignerons de Montblanc, had its fine doubled from €40,000 to €80,000.
Two directors of Caves Pierre Fabre had their fines increased: Jean-Paul Barral from €6000 to €10,000 and Didier Beltran from €5500 to €8000 with €3000 of this total suspended.
Between January 2006 to March 2008 some 18.5m bottles of fake Pinot Noir –made up of mainly Merlot and Syrah – were sold to E&J Gallo and Constellation Wines, netting a profit of €7m for those involved.
The wine went unnoticed into Gallo’s Red Bicyclette brand, a situation which head winemaker Gina Gallo later admitted was ‘something of a disaster’ for the company.
Constellation also imported Pinot Noir from Sieur d’Arques between 2006 and 2008, but the company said it had ‘every reason’ to believe the wine was genuine.
The scandal reached the US government, with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) carrying out its own investigations.
The appeal was held in early June in Montpellier, and the decisions were announced last week.
Have your say!
J Watson
November 14 21:25
Ha Ha Ha ha ha ha ha.
I apologize to the readers for my laughter but once you see this story through my experience you might be laughing too.
First of all in the forty years in the wine business, from bartender, sommelier, wholesale salesman and nine years of importing French wines into Japan while working for a Japanese firm for four years and my own firm for five in Tokyo, I have never forgotten my duty to my customers. My motto has always been: “It is my duty to check the wines I sell and if I can not tell the difference between a wine made with the proper grape and a wine from an improper grape or grapes, then I need to go back to the tasting room and study.”
It seems that both Constellation and Gina Gallo forgot their duty to their customers. I have met many of these corporate people over time, and I find that most should not be in the business. They are always looking for attention and wear their positions and company name on their lapels . Flashy dress, two hour lunches and loads of criticism of their competition. Yet there is strangely, little discussion about the grape grower and the winemaker, and wine drinker that makes their position possible.
I sold against Gallo in the sixties and always thought their wines were mostly non-grape juice so now they want to cry FOUL!!!
James McFadyen
October 19 12:44
Sad case of greed in the wine industry doing untold damage to the standing of all who strive to bring this elixir called wine to the tables of the public, and to increase their knowledge and understanding of this wonderful beverage.
Hardly surprising that something like this would happen, millions of liters of wine being sourced from all over the south of France, being sold to consumers who have been led to believe that pinot is almost as dark as syrah, and full of brambly fruits....just sad!
bill marsano
October 18 18:40
What we learn from this, in which crooks profit by 7 million euros and are fined fewer than 400,000, is that crime pays--so long as it's white-collar crime. Of course the crooks must also serve time, but white-collar crooks probably go to the French version of the U.S. 'resort' known as Club Fed.