French Court Rides Red Bicyclette Producers Over Fake Pinot Noir

Dan Marsteller
Posted: February 5, 2010

E&J Gallo’s Red Bicyclette brand has rolled into controversy as some of
its French producers have been charged with supplying Gallo with
Merlot and Syrah wines masquerading as more expensive Pinot Noir.
French authorities, led by public prosecutor Francis Battut, conducted
a lengthy investigation over the past year and recently arraigned 13
defendants before a three-person tribunal in Carcassonne. The
defendants include executives from two wineries, five co-ops, the
negociant Ducasse and Sieur d’Arques (a Languedoc group with annual
sales of 14 million bottles and €55 million ($48m) and encompassing
400 member winegrowers).

Between 2006 and 2008, Ducasse allegedly acquired around 115,000
hectoliters of what it claimed to be Vin de Pays d’Oc Pinot Noir from
various sources, which it sold to Sieur d’Arques, which in turn
shipped it to Gallo in the U.S. The Vin de Pays d’Oc region,
however—comprising Languedoc’s Gard, Aude, Herault and
Pyrenees-Orientales departments—would be hard-pressed to meet that
figure, even if its entire Pinot Noir production, numbering roughly
40,000 hectoliters annually, was devoted to Red Bicyclette. The total
annual Pinot output of those supplying Ducasse is around 15,000
hectoliters.

While broker Claude Courset of Ducasse and other defendants have
acknowledged the fraud—which was lucrative, given Pinot Noir’s
significantly higher price in bulk than Syrah or Merlot—Sieur d’Arques
executives Pierre Mirc, president, and Alain Gayda, director general,
deny any knowledge of it. The tribunal’s final verdict will be
rendered on February 17. In the meantime, Battut has called for
various fines for all defendants and, in the cases of Courset and the
Sieur d’Arques executives, prison terms of up to one year. The
prosecutor believes the incident could undermine the confidence of
global clients in French suppliers.

A Gallo spokesperson declined comment, saying the company was awaiting
the tribunal’s ruling. Released in 2004, Red Bicyclette started
swiftly, rising to 300,000 cases in the U.S. by year-end 2005. Since
then, it’s fallen back to around 220,000 cases, according to Impact
Databank.