We don’t know whether to laugh or cry, or both. I couldn’t stop laughing when I first read about it - until I pictured the image of the guy chuckling at a gag before realising that the joke was on him. It’s immensely damaging to France, and especially to the Languedoc, at a time when French wine exports are plunging. Having spoken to a few of our customers in passing, more than one mentioned the Austrian Anti-Freeze scandal. And that was 25 years ago.

There’s no shortage of coverage on the ‘fake Pinot‘ (google for 550+ news stories) and you can link below to some of the better news items. It now appears that the world’s biggest wine company, Constellation, were also taken in by the fake Pinot, although no-one seems to know who bought what exactly. If you have an opinion or observation, please feel free to comment  - we’d like to know what you think.

Click here for 12 Great Quotes about the scam on this blog, and further musings called

Pinotgate: Sideways and Freedom Fries

Here are the links to some of the best articles:

For a quick synopsis - The Week

Decanter.com news

From a leading wine blog with lots of comments Dr Vino

For a great, hard-hitting article Grapes and Grains NYC blog

1. “Our vines are cultivated in the Languedoc-Roussilon region with Old World passion and simplicity. Made from carefully selected grapes prized for their character and balance, the flavor reflects France’s famous winemaking expertise, but with a relaxed style.” Red Bicyclette website, home page.

2. “Between 2006 and 2008, Languedoc exported 160 million bottles of Pinot Noir which is odd, considering the entire region produced only 67 million bottles of Pinot Noir.  You do the math, but that is a boatload, no, an aircraft carrier-load of fake wine.  How could this happen?  Greed, my friends, and a mega-producer like Gallo and their flagship Languedoc wine, Red Bicyclette, to support it.” David Flaherty, Grapes and Grains, NYC.

3. “One does wonder, however, at the role of Gallo’s own buying team, who presumably tasted all the lots of Vin de Pays d’Oc, enough to fill 16 million bottles, that were sold as Pinot Noir but were in fact very substantially cut with other varieties much more widely planted in the Languedoc.” Jancis Robinson.

4. The judge said “the scale of the fraud caused severe prejudice to the wines of the Languedoc for which the United States is an important outlet”.

5. “Not a single American consumer complained”, Jean-Marie Bourland, a lawyer for one of the defendants. (The case was brought solely by the French authorities, who spotted a discrepancy in the paperwork.)

6. “That doesn’t speak well for the palate of American consumers of inexpensive wine.” Dana Kennedy, Aolnews.com.

7. According to French newspaper La Dépêche, one of the accused said that had the suppliers ‘been asked to put Yoplait on the label, they would have’ in order to satisfy customer demand (Decanter.com)

8. A Gallo vice president, Susan Hensley, released a statement on the Gallo website saying, “We are deeply disappointed to learn today that our supplier Sieur d’Arques has been found guilty of selling falsely labeled French Pinot Noir.”

9. Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir 2005 won a clutch of medals in the US, and the 2006 ‘83 points, Wine Spectator online’. (Red Bicyclette website, ‘Awards and Accolades’).

10. “So what if the French sent us their unwanted wine? We sent them McDonald’s.” Eric Arnold, Forbes.com.

11. “Until we accept that some wines just can’t be made on the cheap, we’re being sold the wine we deserve.” John Bonné, The Cellarist, San Francisco Chronicle (to whom I am grateful for the word, Pinotgate).

12. “Mr and Mrs Johnson will buy a “Pinot Noir” because they saw the movie Sideways, but wouldn’t know whether to drink a Gevrey-Chambertin or pour it over their pancakes.  And they know French wines are supposedly superior, but damn confusing, so in comes Gallo to bridge this gap.  An American wine producer moves into the French countryside, discards the AOC system, buys massive amounts of juice and sells varietal-labeled wine off France’s doorstep.  Brilliant, really.  A bottle of French Pinot Noir?  For under $10? Perfect!  And a cute man on a bike carrying baguettes?  Even more perfect.  Oo la la!” David Flaherty again, in possibly the best commentary on the scam.

“Um, it’s a hard grape to grow, as you know. Right? It’s uh, it’s thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It’s, you know, it’s not a survivor like Cabernet, which can just grow anywhere and uh, thrive even when it’s neglected. No, Pinot needs constant care and attention. You know? And in fact it can only grow in these really specific, little, tucked away corners of the world. And, and only the most patient and nurturing of growers can do it, really. Only somebody who really takes the time to understand Pinot’s potential can then coax it into its fullest expression. Then, I mean, oh its flavors, they’re just the most haunting and brilliant and thrilling and subtle and… ancient on the planet.”

Miles, from the Oscar-nominated 2004 film, Sideways.

And so began the rush for Pinot Noir. Sales of wine made from Burgundy’s famous red grape surged in the States, while those made from Merlot - and guess which we grow here - dropped like a stone. E & J Gallo, with their newly developed French brand of wines sourced from the vast, loosely controlled Languedoc region, were perfectly positioned to exploit the trend. ‘Red Bicyclette’ already came in Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah flavours, so surely it would be possible to produce a Pinot Noir. Calls to a few brokers in the south of France were probably all that was necessary, even if it had been overlooked that Pinot “can only grow in these really specific, little, tucked away corners of the world.”

For the French, wine sales were falling, and export sales to the US in particular had plummeted since the so-called ‘cheese-eating surrender monkeys’ had refused to support Bush and Blair and their 2003 invasion of Iraq. French Fries had been replaced by the Freedom variety. Faced with the choice of a huge sale or nothing, it’s easy to see how it got out of hand.

When we first arrived in France ten years ago, we were told that there are two sets of rules here. The first set of rules is the legal stuff, while the second set of rules are the ones you must follow to get around the first. Then there’s just a natural way of doing things. After his handball had broken Irish hearts by cheating them out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the highly respected Thierry Henri declared “The ball hit my hand, my arm even, the ball is right in front of me, I played it and the ref allowed it. That’s the question you should ask him.” In other words, it’s up to the authorities to get it right.

In a modern wine world that focuses on brand and grape variety, it’s easy to forget that the French authorities are obsessed with origin, not brand or grape - as long as the variety is permitted. If you asked a Co-op in Bordeaux to supply a truckload of Rosé made from Cabernet Franc, I doubt they’d worry too much about the inclusion of a large dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon or even Merlot. Mind you, it’s hard to believe that the volumes involved in the Languedoc scam, under Vin de Pays control, could have happened in an area that is covered by stricter Appellation Controlée rules, as the whole of Bordeaux is.

And under those rules, I really shouldn’t be growing that Pinot Noir I planted. But that’s another story.

For any wine zealots out there, let’s keep the faith by ending with Maya’s words from Sideways:

“I like to think about the life of wine. How it’s a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it’s an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I’d opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it’s constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your ‘61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline.

And it tastes so fucking good.”

As we said in our February newsletter, I had a tasting with the team of sommeliers and buyers from Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants at Claridge’s in London, right. They’d be the first to admit that the video above makes better viewing.

Mike Kane of Curious Wines in Ireland talks through our Château Bauduc Bordeaux Blanc Sec 2008. “A cracking wine for your money” and no, we didn’t put him up to it. To buy the wine in the UK, click this link to our order page.

Mike’s Curious Wines blog is here, including a rambling interview with your’s truly.

Shinal Radia (for October 2009)

Tim Dennis (November)

Vicky Hastings (December)

Each winner wins £250 worth of Chateau Bauduc wine of your choice. Please email angela@bauduc.com to claim your prize.

1. Most restaurants have their wine lists online. It is worth having a look in advance if you are the host and won’t have time to read the list while chatting with your guests. Check with the restaurant if this is up to date on the website when making your reservation.

2. If you are four people or more, don’t order four glasses of Champagne by the glass as an aperitif, better to order a bottle. A bottle is equivalent to six glasses and restaurants make more profit on wines served by the glass and especially Champagne. You will also have a wider choice. This also works for wine during the meal, and six people is ideal if you want a different glass of wine for everyone to go with each course (it’s trickier with eight people, unless it’s a sweet wine).

3. Always try to decide at the beginning of the meal how many different wines you will need. This will allow the sommelier to prepare all the wines and to decant if necessary and to check the temperature. If you order your red wine when the main course is in front of you, it is likely that the red will be too cold, if straight from the cellar, and taste too ‘tight’ as it won’t have had time to breathe and open up.

4. Choose your wine according to the time of day - not just on what you are eating or what you normally might pick off a shelf for drinking at home. Go for a lighter wine at lunch - if you have only had breakfast and a cappuccino so far in the day, don’t be hard on your palate by ordering a super fat oaky white or a rich alcoholic red.

5. Don’t hesitate to give your budget to the sommelier. A professional sommelier should not make you spend more than you want - but if they do, then this must be justified by the quality of the wine.

If you have comments or suggestions, we’d like to hear them. I’ll be seeing Jean Marie on Wednesday, 27th January at 9am, so feel free to ask him a question and I’ll put it to him.

Hot on the heels of the positive spin coming from the major UK retailers about their Christmas sales, including Majestic’s 12% increase in the nine weeks of the festive season, we’re delighted that our UK wine sales were up 35% by value in November and December compared to the same months in 2008. This excludes Bauduc Bond sales which don’t count just yet, as they are filed under ‘Bordeaux futures’.

What’s quite interesting is that we actually sent out less emails out to customers in 2009, contrary to what you might think: six from 1st October to Christmas - one a fortnight - compared to eight in 2008. We’re learning that no-one likes being inundated with crap when an occasional offer or seasonal reminder will do. Our Christmas Gazette -  “A Season to be Jolly” - sent in the UK post certainly helped.

All these sales were direct to customers, so more important than the short-term sales results, we’d like to know what you think. We’re busy emailing those customers who placed an order online to see what they thought of the wine or the service - or indeed the marketing - and have set up a special ‘Your Say’ page for comments on this blog called ‘How was it for You?’ - see the box on the right.

We welcome your thoughts on this or any other topic - whether you placed an order or not.

Play Richie Benaud’s chat with his French vineyard manager

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