A £2 BOTTLE of wine bought in a local store was renamed and given a fake label before being submitted into a distinguished wine competition – and embarrassing judges who awarded top marks to the ‘smooth and rich’ plonk.
A Belgian TV programme ‘On n’est pas des pigeons’ (We are not suckers) conducted the alarming experiment by entering the hooch into the renowned Gilbert et Gaillard international competition.
Much to everyone’s surprise, the bargain booze clinched a prestigious gold medal.
The programme’s producers had cunningly disguised the cheap wine with a new flashy label and gave it the new name of Le Château Colombier.
They even fabricated a report of the wine’s composition for the £60 entry and analysis fee.
The jury lauded the wine for its ‘smooth, nervous and rich palate with clean, young aromas that promise a pleasant complexity. Very interesting’.
The programme revealed that such competitions often employ volunteer juries with little expertise in wine tasting, a practice that they had observed firsthand.
It is believed that wines with award labels typically see a sales boost of 15 per cent so getting a gold medal can skyrocket sales.
Consequently, they advocated for competitions like the ‘Concours Mondial de Bruxelles’, adjudicated by genuine oenology professionals.
One Twitter user commented that serious wine awards are conducted blind and people don’t take this competition seriously.
“No one takes the Gilbert et Gaillard contest seriously in the international wine markets. Serious competitions are blind — the bottle or label is not displayed.
“In addition, there is no rule that 2.5 euros will be bad for wine, the ex-winery sales price of most of the wines sold as ‘good’ in the market does not exceed 3-4 euros. [After] import costs, shipping, taxes, dealer’s share etc, unfortunately it is sold to the consumer for very high prices.
“In my opinion, this is nothing more than an advertising campaign created to attract attention to such competitions as G&G.”
Of course, you could just ignore all the experts and make your own booze instead.
