Rosé: the scam of the century



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A little balloon of rosé, it is at the same time the carelessness of the summer evenings, a handful of friends on the terrace, the light aroma of the holidays and … sometimes a gigantic swindle! In recent years, Spanish wine has been fraudulently interfering in bottles and cubis whose label promises a French nectar.

"From the end of 2015, we received alerts about French wine Spanish, says Alexandre Chevallier, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF). So we launched a survey at all levels of the industry, from producers to importers to restaurateurs and distributors. The results of this survey carried out in 2016 and 2017, which we unveil, are staggering.

22% of establishments have a labeling anomaly

One in five establishments (22%) visited in 2016 – importers, distributors , restaurants, labellers … – presented anomalies more or less serious, ranging from deceptive labeling to the Frenchization pure and simple bottle.

Nearly ten million fake bottles of French rosé were discovered in four very big French wine merchants. These scammers were selling Spanish bulk wine in bottles flocked with an indication "Vin de France" or a protected geographical indication (PGI).

Spanish bulk wine purchased € 0.30 per liter

How to explain this scam? Everything is a question of money. In 2016, the Spanish bulk wine was bought at 0.34 € / liter against 0.75 to 0.90 € / liter for a French equivalent. To sell an Iberian piquette at the price of a French PGI, that is to say from 3 or 4 €, is therefore particularly lucrative.

If the consumer is totally helpless in the face of these cases of fraud, he can also be a victim of packaging more than doubtful, which suggests that the rosé comes from France. A beautiful picture of a village steeple, a French flag: it does not take more to the inattentive or inexperienced buyer to be had and invest in a Spanish wine whose provenance will be indicated in fine print under the handle

Penal proceedings were launched

What obviously make leap French winemakers, heavily penalized by these deceptions and scams. "The wine sector represents hundreds of thousands of jobs and exports a recognized French know-how," said the Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy Delphine Gény-Stephann. It is thus a question of protecting the consumers but also the virtuous companies which participate in the economic dynamism of the territories.

How? Orders for compliance, minutes and criminal proceedings for deception were launched by the DGCCRF.

Enough to stop this vineyard case? Impossible to say, according to the investigators. Because if the price of bulk wine in Spain increased by 17% in 2017, charging € 0.40 / liter, it still remains well below the sales price of our French rosé.

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