Château Giscours: The Scandal
Writing in The Winemasters of Bordeaux (Carlton Books, second revised edition, 2005), the late Nicolas Faith described events thus:
“Nicole…did everything possible to make life difficult for the new owner. As a result the estate was not as closely supervised as it should have been. Moreover, there were obviously lots of disgruntled employees (and ex-employees) around ready to make mischief. They got their opportunity when some wine from outside the appellation, Margaux, was put into the second wine produced by the estate, La Sirène de Margaux. The transgression was duly reported to the authorities who had to take it seriously, even though the wine involved improved the resulting blend.”
According to Frank Prial, writing in the New York Times on June 10th 1998, Bordeaux prosecutors took action against two employees, who faced charges that they had engaged in fraudulent practices, including mixing the estate wine with cheaper wine from outside the appellation as described above, and also in mixing vintages.
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