E&J Gallo conned into buying 18 million bottles of fake wine

[heli]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/17/gallo-conned-french-fake-pinot-noir

Ce n'est pas pinot noir: E&J Gallo conned into buying cheap plonk from French vineyards
Court hands out fines over €7m scam that fooled leading US winery
Lizzy Davies, Paris guardian.co.uk

The Californian wine buff testing his glass of wine in the sunshine might have noticed many things from his mouthful of Red Bicyclette pinot noir: "dark fruit aromas", as the website proudly proclaims, or "flavours of black cherry and ripe plum". But if he had paused a little longer and maybe sniffed a little deeper, the connoisseur might have detected another, rather different note: the bitter taste of being had.

Today, in a courtroom in the south-western French town of Carcassonne, 12 figures from the local wine industry were convicted of masterminding a lucrative scam in which E&J Gallo, the leading US winery, was conned into buying 18m bottles of plonk which had been repackaged as pinot noir.

In one of the most far-reaching scandals to have hit French vineyards in years, the executives from the Languedoc-Roussillon region were found to have made a €7m (£6.1m) profit through a fraud which lasted from January 2006 until March 2008. Overall, 13.5m litres of fake wine were shipped to the US to be drunk by unsuspecting US consumers. Gallo, founded by brothers Ernest and Julio following the repeal of prohibition in 1933, is now the biggest family-run winery in the US, known internationally as the leading exporter of Californian wines and within the industry as the world's most powerful wine brand.

The court made clear who it believed had been the "kingpin" of the affair: Claude Courset, head of Ducasse wine merchants, who acted as an intermediary between local producers and a conglomerate which resold the wine to Gallo. Courset was given a six month suspended jail sentence and a fine of €45,000. Sieur d'Arques, the trading company that worked with Gallo on its popular brand of Red Bicyclette wines, was ordered to pay €180,000. The business had been the only defendant to plead not guilty in the affair, insisting that the fraud had been carried out without its knowledge. The other defendants, including eight co-operative wine cellars from the surrounding Aude and Hérault regions, were fined according to their responsibility in the affair. Gallo has not yet filed any complaint to the French courts...

[givemebackmycountry]

1. What the hell is "plonk"?

Off to Google.

[Mari333]

3. ah ha! so they were told it was pinot noir and it was Boone's Farm

mon dieu!

[gmoney]

4. I like the caption on this photo from Wikipedia re: plonk

Who knew wiki had a sense of humor?

[givemebackmycountry]

5. From: The Guardian

Ce n'est pas pinot noir:
E&J Gallo conned into buying cheap plonk from French vineyardsCourt hands out fines over €7m scam that fooled leading US winery

The Californian wine buff testing his glass of wine in the sunshine might have noticed many things from his mouthful of Red Bicyclette pinot noir: "dark fruit aromas", as the website proudly proclaims, or "flavours of black cherry and ripe plum". But if he had paused a little longer and maybe sniffed a little deeper, the connoisseur might have detected another, rather different note: the bitter taste of being had.

Today, in a courtroom in the south-western French town of Carcassonne, 12 figures from the local wine industry were convicted of masterminding a lucrative scam in which E&J Gallo, the leading US winery, was conned into buying 18m bottles of plonk which had been repackaged as pinot noir.

In one of the most far-reaching scandals to have hit French vineyards in years, the executives from the Languedoc-Roussillon region were found to have made a €7m (£6.1m) profit through a fraud which lasted from January 2006 until March 2008. Overall, 13.5m litres of fake wine were shipped to the US to be drunk by unsuspecting US consumers. Gallo, founded by brothers Ernest and Julio following the repeal of prohibition in 1933, is now the biggest family-run winery in the US, known internationally as the leading exporter of Californian wines and within the industry as the world's most powerful wine brand.

The court made clear who it believed had been the "kingpin" of the affair: Claude Courset, head of Ducasse wine merchants, who acted as an intermediary between local producers and a conglomerate which resold the wine to Gallo. Courset was given a six month suspended jail sentence and a fine of €45,000.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/17/gallo-conned-french-fake-pinot-noir

I love the pic of the harvester.

[cali]

7. plonk is a british term for cheap rotgut wine- like much of what Gallo

produces.

[Quantess]

15. Gallo is certainly not good wine, but I'm assuming this stuff was so bad it was undrinkable

by even a bum's standards.

How did they not know it was terrible before they bought it, I wonder.

[Brother Buzz]

22. Gallo makes good wines, not great

Gallo make extraordinarily simple adequate wines from crappy region IV grapes. That in itself is an achievement.

I'm a winemaker and I make great wines (awards in California State fair amateur class) from good grapes, but I can't make good wine from crappy grapes.

[Quantess]

24. Oh, I've had Gallo wine. It isn't something you want to savor, but it's drinkable.

But, dear winemaker, how do you think they were fooled?

[Brother Buzz]

26. Too many chiefs wearing suits

[rocktivity]

2. Are you sure?

I thought selling fake wine was their specialty!


rocktivity

[REP]

6. Couldn't have happened to bigger thieves!

See the Gallo exception:

"The Gallos learned the value of political connections as they built their wine empire and dealt with liquor regulators at the national, state, and sometimes county levels. They contributed to the campaigns of then-Congressman Leon Panetta, US Senator Alan Cranston, and California Governor Pete Wilson. In 1978, Cranston pushed an amendment custom-tailored to allow the family to spread inheritance tax payments out over several years through the Senate. The move saved the Gallos millions of dollars. As the family has grown, so has its fortune, and Ernest has long been anxious to protect the business he plans to leave to his heirs. He wrote recently, "I look forward to coming into their winery.

The 1978 measure was dubbed "the Gallo wine amendment" by Kansas Senator Bob Dole. In 1986, however, when Congress was changing the tax code, Dole took a different tack. When Dole supported a second tax amendment lobbied for by the Gallos, his PAC received $20,000 from Ernest, Julio and their wives in one day. The amendment passed and Bob Dole was on his way to cementing his relationship with the Gallos, who according to federal campaign records, have since become his top career benefactors. The Gallos have contributed $381,000 to Dole over the years and about $900,000 to foundations with which the Senator has been connected."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/president/players/gallo.html

[rocktivity]

8. "...The (defendants) were found to have made a €7m (£6.1m) profit..."

That's $9,523,713.37 in REAL money!


rocktivity

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. I guess I'd be wining, too, if I got stiffed like they did.

[izzybeans]

10. I've had Red Bicyclette pinot noir - not sure if it is the same Plonk

or not, but it was indistinguishable from E and J branded wines. Plonk v. Plonk.

[dugaresa]

14. EJ Gallo - the makers of Thunderbird the King of Plonk

[FarCenter]

23. Probably not much difference between French vin ordinaire and E&J's volume production

The sin, in the eyes of the French, was probably relabeling vin ordinaire as pinot noir. Nomenclature is very important -- probably more important that actual comparisons of quality.

[izzybeans]

30. That makes sense.

[KingFlorez]

11. Now this is an epic failure

[unblock]

12. i find it hard to believe gallo was not, eventually, in on it

i can understand getting away with handing the expert a sample of good stuff and then shipping bad stuff.
but i don't understand how gallo could keep buying the bad stuff for over two full years without testing some and realizing it was crap.

maybe they were had at the start, but i strongly suspect that they figured it out at some point and just let the good times roll rather than publicize a huge embarassment to themselves. no doubt they only killed the deal and sued once the secret was out.



for what it's worth, i think the whole concept of fraud in wine is kinda funny. i mean, the NORMAL course of business for many commercial wines in america is to take a particular grape and slap a label and a marketing campaign on it, start a fad or craze, and make plenty of money by selling at a price point that has little to do with the cost of production. in short, it's ALL a fraud on the consumer.

this one's only a problem because the american distributer alleges they weren't in on the fraud from the start.

[dugaresa]

18. A French coworker of mine told me that Beaujolais Nouveau is by French standards swill

but it is marketed well and he laughs at the Americans who buy into it.

He said they served it in cafeterias in France and even the French got caught up in the marketing but it is still swill.

I have had it, and it is far better than the Red Bicylette but still not a great wine.

[unblock]

19. same thing with beers or hard liquors in different countries

there are beers and hard liquors in mexico that are regarded as cool or premium in the u.s. but crap south of the border, and vice versa.

marketing, marketing, marketing.

[Enrique]

25. it seems obvious to me they were in on it

For the reasons you say. Don't they taste their wine before selling it?

The headline says Gallo was "conned" but nowhere in the story does it explain why Gallo should be off the hook. The reason they're not in court is probably a legality. Maybe they'll end up getting into trouble under American laws, if we have any laws regarding wine.

[dugaresa]

13. Red Bicyclette makes 2 Buck Chuck seem like a fine Burgundy

it was ghastly and cost about $5.

I like to try various wines and tend to stay away from anything over $20 a bottle unless it is a special event. Sometimes I am surprised to find cheap great finds. RB was not one of them.

[REP]

16. Have you tried Casillero del Diablo?

All three reds - cab, carmenere and merlot - are quite nice, and about $8 each (although the '06 merlot is usually $10).

[dugaresa]

17. i have had the Merlot but not the others

I will have to try them out.

Thanks for reminding me!

I love trying out wine. I was recently in the Czech Republic and sampled some great mulled wines, so warming and delicious on a cold day.

[REP]

21. Another one I love

$15 - BR Cohn Silver Label Cab. Tastes like it costs lot more, plus a beautiful label!

[Gold Metal Flake]

20. I think at this time it is worth revisiting...

...this picture.



it is full of win.

[SoCalDem]

27. a hint of oak , an earthy smell & the taste of THUNDERBIRD..

:rofl:

[JoeyT]

28. It has an earthy aroma, and tastes faintly of Tang and diesel fuel.

[baldguy]

29. Ever have the Carlo Rossi Pisano?

They've been selling fake wine for years.

[Doctor_J]

31. The vintage wine industry seems ripe for fraud

I like my $10 Aussie merlot and can't imagine what something would have to taste like to be worth $200, much less $20,000. I can see investing in artwork, since you can actually look at it every day. But the wine thing escapes me.