Wine Crime is Soaring...

Our post title is a shortened version of the title of an article from the February 27th edition of The Guardian online.  The whole article is interesting and entertaining and well worth a look-see, but one point made there made me think this post might be worthwhile.  

The article says, "Today it is estimated that as much as 25% of all wine in the world is not as described."  It is either adulterated, mis-blended or misrepresented on the label.  

When I read this, I recoiled in horror.  WTF!  This is my industry and it's unethical to the tune of 25%?  This is an outrage!  Then, after a little thoughtful introspection, my Claude Rains/Inspector Renault Casablanca catharsis kicked in.  Should we be "shocked" to find gambling/corruption going on here?  Of course not.  The scandals in wine industry history are legion.  If the truth be known, 25% is probably conservative.

Before we go any further, here are two points for clarification:

1. The Guardian article was about real corruption.  It cited a Yellow Tail wine scandal in England last year that involved counterfeit product on store shelves.  That is serious corruption.  

2.  Our beef is more nuanced.  It concerns deliberately loose wine laws that are meant to protect the industry when bad vintages, forest fires, earthquakes and other acts of God occur.  While that intention is good, it makes them vulnerable to exploitation by companies that want to increase their bottom line.  What if those intentions aren't harmless opportunities to increase profitability but rather a deliberate intention to deceive the public?  Is that serious corruption?

Yellow Tail isn't the product of some bucolic, back country Aussie vineyard as it's advertising implies.  It is sourced from some of the cheapest excess bulk juice inventory they can find.  So by misleading the public this way is Yellow Tail a fraud?  It depends.  According to Australian wine law if the label says it is Australian wine all of it must be sourced from that continent.  So to the best of our knowledge, Yellow Tail is legitimate in that respect.  Not so in our domestic wine law where our appellation system declares only 75% of the contents must be from that place.  

Recently we learned one of the premier wine companies of California, known for marketing higher priced wines, was importing a lot of Chilean juice.  In fact, many large California companies do the same thing.  Some own properties down there for that very reason.  It is an ongoing practice.  For many mega-producers fully 25% of  their California-labeled product may not be California wine at all.  Yet the practice is legal and the marketing apparatus will tout it as fine California wine.