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. An investigation of practices at the property revealed a set of invoices for the purchase of oak chips from Bordeaux barrel-making firm Demptos. The trail led the investigating authorities further, as documents at Demptos revealed wood chip products had been sold to several other properties, all of cru bourgeois status. In the case of Château Giscours it became apparent that these had been used to impart an oak flavour to the second wine rather than the grand vin, but this did not excuse the practice, which at the time was expressly forbidden. Ironically, by 2006 the practice would be made legal, so you could argue the Giscours team were just ahead of their time.
