Swiss winemaker Dominique Giroud has been cleared of illegally topping up tens of thousands of bottles of AOC St Saphorin with unapproved wine.
Swiss officials in the canton of Vaud said they found no evidence that Giroud had bulked up St Saphorin appellation wines with unapproved Fendant wine.
The ruling ends five years of suspicion surrounding 100,000 bottles of Giroud’s wine. In 2009, an unnamed winemaker from Vaud filed a criminal complaint of wine fraud against Giroud, who is based in the canton of Valais. The complaint was dropped two years later, but authorities continued to investigate.
‘The contents of the bottles met the relevant legislation,’ officials said, according to a statement released by Giroud’s spokesperson, Marc Comina.
‘The case is now closed. Dominique Giroud is innocent,’ said Giroud’s lawyer, Yannis Sakkas.
It marks particularly welcome news for Giroud after he was convicted of tax fraud, also in the canton of Vaud, in July this year.
Giroud has had a turbulent relationship with Swiss media, which dubbed the allegations against him as the ‘Giroud affair’.
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Written by Chris Mercer
