Pinot Noirgate: The cuvée thickens
Calif. Lawsuit Charges Gallo With Knowingly Selling Fake Pinot
Wine Industry Insight
A Los Angeles law firm has filed a complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court ($VIP subscriber content) against E. &.J Gallo and French company Sieur d ‘Arques alleging that the two companies engaged in unfair competition, false advertising, and fraud in the bottling, distribution, and sale of the Red Bicyclette line French wines represented as Pinot Noir.
According to the complaint filed by the Encino-based Kingsley & Kingsley law firm, on behalf of Plaintiff Mark Zeller, “Defendants materially misrepresented the falsely labeled wine as Pinot Noir when they knew that the wine they labeled, marketed, promoted, distributed, and sold was not actually Pinot Noir wine. This substantially increased their profits.”
A spokesman for E. & J. Gallo said, “As a matter of course it is the policy of the E. & J. Gallo Winery not to comment on pending legal issues.”
However, Susan Hensley, Gallo’s Vice President of Public Relations said in a previous written statement that, “We are deeply disappointed to learn today that our supplier Sieur d’Arques has been found guilty of selling falsely labeled French Pinot Noir. Based on the available information of the Pinot Noir that the French courts have investigated, Gallo imported less than 20% of the total and is no longer selling any of this wine to customers.
(Continued here. NOTE: Vox Verax is not surprised. We commented in an earlier post that because of Gallo's technological expertise we found it highly unlikely that the company (or someone in the company) did not know the wine was fraudulent.
Wine Industry Insight
A Los Angeles law firm has filed a complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court ($VIP subscriber content) against E. &.J Gallo and French company Sieur d ‘Arques alleging that the two companies engaged in unfair competition, false advertising, and fraud in the bottling, distribution, and sale of the Red Bicyclette line French wines represented as Pinot Noir.
According to the complaint filed by the Encino-based Kingsley & Kingsley law firm, on behalf of Plaintiff Mark Zeller, “Defendants materially misrepresented the falsely labeled wine as Pinot Noir when they knew that the wine they labeled, marketed, promoted, distributed, and sold was not actually Pinot Noir wine. This substantially increased their profits.”
A spokesman for E. & J. Gallo said, “As a matter of course it is the policy of the E. & J. Gallo Winery not to comment on pending legal issues.”
However, Susan Hensley, Gallo’s Vice President of Public Relations said in a previous written statement that, “We are deeply disappointed to learn today that our supplier Sieur d’Arques has been found guilty of selling falsely labeled French Pinot Noir. Based on the available information of the Pinot Noir that the French courts have investigated, Gallo imported less than 20% of the total and is no longer selling any of this wine to customers.
(Continued here. NOTE: Vox Verax is not surprised. We commented in an earlier post that because of Gallo's technological expertise we found it highly unlikely that the company (or someone in the company) did not know the wine was fraudulent.
Labels: fraud, Gallo, Pinot Noir, Stephen Ross Wine Cellars
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1 Comments:
It will be interesting to see if Eric Kingsley will be able to argue that Matt Gallo who has grown Pinto Noir in Sonoma County for 20 years and Gina Gallo who has been the family’s winemaker there since 1991, should have known what Pinot Noir tastes like and what volume of Pinot Noir wine Langeudoc was capable of producing even using high-yield viticulture techniques.
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