The court ruled [12 French winemakers and traders] had deliberately and repeatedly mislabelled the wine as one of the more expensive varieties of grape in order to get a better price from E and J Gallo [whose] [...] Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir single grape wine is hugely popular in the United States.
French Customs officers spotted the swindle and called in investigators.
They found the amount of Pinot Noir being sold to Gallo was far more than the region produced.
Well, that's disappointing. It also reminds me of something I read in Wine and War: French winemakers, hassled during WWII to keep the Germans elbow-deep in the fruits of their labour, reveled in collaborative efforts to bottle bad product behind beautiful labels.
In that context, I thought it funny. In this one, well, it just makes the whole thing stink slightly worse.
