Châteauneuf-du-Pape producer Guy Arnaud has been sued by his daughter in a row over the family’s 51-hectare estate.

Carole Perveyrie-Arnaud took legal action against her father for allegedly failing to pay £19,000 in wages while she and her husband worked on the land.

Arnaud owns one of the region’s largest vineyards, spread across Château Cabrières and Château Maucoil,

The year-and-a-half-long spat has allegedly appalled the local winemaking community.

‘The bad press splashes on everyone’, said one disgruntled local.

The feud began in 2008, after Perveyrie-Arnaud contacted the authorities claiming her father was violating appellation rules by buying wine from outside the area and putting the Châteauneuf-du-Pape label on the bottles.

Mr Arnaud ‘totally refuted’ the claim.

‘Carole [Perveyrie-Arnaud] has made some very grave claims. She denounced her own parents and claimed they doctored their barrels’, Mr Arnaud’s lawyer said.

Guy Arnaud had allegedly offered his three daughters a 17-hectare share of his estate, worth an estimated £7.5m each.

No charges were brought but Perveyrie-Arnaud was ceded the immediate rights to £3.5m worth of vineyards, the equivalent of 8 hectares.

‘She could have staked a claim for a lot more. She realised after signing the deal that she was the loser’, a source told Le Parisien newspaper.

A workers tribunal is due to announce the verdict on 24 February.

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Written by Lucy Shaw

Lucy Shaw
Lucy Shaw
Decanter Magazine, Restaurant Critic, Wine Writer & Editor

Lucy Shaw is a wine and spirits editor and writer, based in London. She joined Decanter 2007 as Editorial Assistant and left three years later to join The Drinks Business, where she is now the editor. Her special interests are the wine regions of Spain, South America and Champagne, as well as reviewing the latest restaurants on London’s dining scene.