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Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Convicted Felon as Wine Folk Hero? No Thanks
We last wrote about Stealing a Wine’s Place of Birth” back on Oct. 5, when this blog was just a baby (it’s a toddler now). But the misleading-label issue is back in the news in many fun ways:
The Associated Press reported today (11-30-05) that a Shanghai court ordered two Chinese companies to pay $37,000 to the maker of …
… Hennessy Cognac and to stop selling products that violate its trademark. A Chinese food company was selling in local supermarkets wines under the name “Hanlissy” that was billed as “French cognac brandy” and was, um, not anything of the sort. The court “ruled the Chinese companies had sought to mislead consumers,” the AP report said. Duh.
Now I’m hearing news reports suggesting that the folks who produced large amounts of wine with “Napa” on the label — but which actually contained little or no Napa County grapes— are contemplating yet another appeal, this time to a California Supreme Court decision that essentially told them to cease and desist, that their actions were designed to mislead consumers. Sheesh.
For some remarkable insight behind the scenes of this nasty little court fight, check out the U.S. News and World Report profile of Fred Franzia, the man at the epicenter of the “Napa” labeling court battle. The story overall is pretty balanced, though there are times when the author seems to want to canonize Franzia as a hero of the little people for making and selling inexpensive wines and standing up against the high-falutin’ image-obsessed wineries.
Pul-leeze. Let’s not forget a key sentence in the story, referring to a 1993 indictment of Franzia and his company: “Franzia pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to defraud …” Federal prosecutors charged Franzia and his company of passing off grapes costing between $100 and $200 a ton as zinfandel grapes worth perhaps 10 to 12 times as much. According to the indictment, Franzia scattered zinfandel leaves on top of non-zin grapes as they sat in bins.
A convicted felon as a hero of the people? I don’t think so.
I prefer my wine labels to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, thankyouverymuch. Whether I’m in Dayton, Napa or Shanghai. And preferably, not in a courtroom. Is that too much to ask??
Thoughts? Feel free to “Post a Comment.”
Cheers!
Mark Fisher
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