• Fraud charges brought: French authorities have charged 13 with fraud for selling millions of dollars of fake pinot noir to Gallo for its Red Bicyclette brand. The public prosecutor recommended prison sentences and heavy fines for the defendants, who included executives from two wineries and five co-operatives, as well as negociant Ducasse and conglomerate Sieur d'Arques. Only the latter denied the charges. Between 2006 and 2008, Sieur d'Arques allegedly sold 3.5 million gallons of wine labeled pinot noir to Gallo that was actually merlot and syrah. For background, go here.
• UK closer to minimum pricing? More than a dozen directors of public health in Britain's northeast have urged the government to introduce a minimum price for alcohol. The officials signed an open letter to ministers condemning the sale of alcohol at "pocket money prices." The on-going minimum pricing controversy is a reaction to increased levels of binge drinking and alcoholism in the UK, which public health officials have called a crisis. They said a can of beer can be bought for a little as 22 pence, or about 35 cents US.
• Dump the critics: Tim Hanni, one of the first Americans to earn the Master of Wine title, says that wine critics are bunk. He told Oliver Thring of the Guardian newspaper "that the critics utterly misjudge their approach, and that 'matching' wine and food is lazily unchallenged bunk. Everyone's palate is different, their tastebuds their only guide, he says. It is an argument so radical that self-professed 'experts' wouldn't even bother responding to it, were it not for the fact that Hanni is one of them." Mr. Hanni is welcome at the Wine Curmudgeon's any time -- I'll bring the $10 wine. Interestingly, my colleague Janice Fuhrman wrote about this topic just last week, and reached more or less the same conclusion.
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