A court in the medieval town of Carcassonne in southwest France has convicted a dozen people in a scheme to pass off merlot and syrah wines as more expensive pinot noir to the Gallo wine firm. The scheme hit every level of the chain that takes the wine from the vine and gets it to U.S. consumers.
Claude Courset of the Ducasse wine trading company, portrayed as the kingpin of the scheme, was given a six-month suspended prison term and a $61,000 fine.
“Our wines are irreproachable,” Courset said in a telephone interview Thursday. The company that sold Ducasse’s wine in the United States, Sieur d’Argues, was fined $244,000.
A spokeswoman for Gallo, a veritable winemaking empire in the San Joaquin Valley, said the company is “deeply disappointed” that its supplier, Sieur d’Arques, was found guilty, adding that Gallo is no longer selling that wine to customers.
Associated Press
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