capital island st georg being th capital

But if he had it to do over again, I'll bet Parker would have left out the offending phrase and saved himself the legal headaches. That took a while, but the effort has paid off unlike Bordeaux and Napa, which still are beholden to Parker's points, Burgundy sells its wines with prices based on its terroir classification system, as it has always wanted, and Parker's opinion cannot touch it. In fact, one could argue that being ignored by Parker forced Burgundy to develop an entirely separate market of wine buyers who don't like Parker's recommendations. Early on in that period, it seemed like the silence from the Wine Advocate was hurting Burgundy, as it lagged behind the rest of the world's top wine regions in price escalation. Subsequently, Parker and the entire region of Burgundy, which largely supported Faiveley, had a near 20-year divorce Parker wasn't welcome so he didn't go, and he didn't rate the wines. McCoy reported that the case cost Parker more than $100,000 in legal fees, but he sold more books in France, Switzerland and Belgium because of the publicity, so though it took a while, eventually he made money on it. The offending lines were removed from future editions of the book and distribution ceased of the then-current edition. The lawyers settled, and the settlement could be said to have gone in Faiveley's favor, mainly because he didn't want money: he only wanted 1 French franc (worth about 16 cents). !' as an allegation that he was providing Parker with different bottles to taste on his French visits than the wines he was selling in America.įaiveley sued Parker in French court. Parker told Elin McCoy, author of 'The Emperor of Wine,' that he was talking about shipping and storage that he had been telling François Faiveley that his wines were being damaged by being stored in un-airconditioned warehouses, like one he visited in Texas on a 90-degree day.īut Faiveley and others read that 'Ummm. But at the end of the review, Parker wrote, 'On the dark side, reports continue to circulate that Faiveley's wines tasted abroad are less rich than those tasted in the cellars - something I have noticed as well. In 1993, Robert Parker's annual Wine Buyer's Guide had a very positive 4 1/2 page review of Faiveley's wines from Burgundy. If you know of more, please tell me in the comments. Here is a brief history of the only three wine libel cases I know of in the postwar era. Wine libel cases were more common a century ago, and mainly involved misrepresentation: somebody claimed to be selling a certain brand of Champagne which in fact was a much cheaper wine. One might also think suing the world's most powerful wine critic over a single nonsense word in a review would backfire. One would think pursuing legal action in this case might hurt sales. I don't know what Georg Riedel was thinking. Please note that no interview with Georg Riedel took place in the creation of this article and that all quotes are fictitious and do not represent the personal views or business practices of Georg Riedel or his company. No offence is meant to be caused either to Georg Riedel or to his business. In this piece, US-based wine writer Ron Washam pokes fun at Riedel, the wine glass company, a brand that I respect and use personally. That said, in the past some Europeans have been angry enough to go to court, and it has ended up being expensive for the Americans.Ītkin and Riedel announced Saturday that the case was resolved when Atkin added this disclaimer: But they're easy to send going to court takes a much greater commitment. Anyone can hire a lawyer to send a letter threatening action. Riedel's threat last week against Ron 'Hosemaster' Washam and Tim Atkin will never reach a courtroom.

Capital island st georg being th capital