Import Violations: Good Grapes Gone Bad
U.S. Wine company E. & J. Gallo has triumphed over local French wine producers after discovering that these exporters were intentionally mislabeling their wine in order to command a higher price when selling to Gallo.
In 2008, French customs found that during three years some 13.5 million liters, or about 3.6 million gallons, of mislabeled wine had been sold to Gallo.
The producers and traders were accused of deliberately mislabeling the wine with a more expensive variety of grape.
The producers and traders in France were claiming their “ordinary” wines were in fact
Photo Courtesy Robert S. Donovan
PinotNoir – giving them an extra profit of around 43 euro per liter.
According to SmartMoney’s article on the case, French customs officials figured outthe scam once they realized that the amount of Pinot Noir being sold to Gallo exceeded the amount produced in the entire region.
The author, Ryan Sager, goes on to ask, “But would anyone have figured it out otherwise? The scheme ran for years. But, as one French winemaker’s lawyer sniffed to the BBC: “Not a single American consumer complained.” Sager continues to analyze recent studies comparing enjoyment of wine to price – very interesting article, especially for wine lovers.
So, what is the penalty for this misrepresentation? The court in Ducasse, France, which decided the case, gave the following punishments:
- Claude Courset of the Ducasse wine traders was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and has to pay a fine of 45,000 euros. The prosecutor had asked for a tough prison sentence.
- Five other people were sentenced to fines of between 3,000 and 6,000 euros and the remaining six for less than that.
- The Sieur d’Arques trading firm of Limoux was ordered to pay 180,000 euros in penalties.
A spokesperson for E. & J. Gallo stated, “We are deeply disappointed to learn today that our supplier Sieru d’Arques has been found guilty of selling falsely labeled French Pinot Noir as recently as March of 2008.”
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