Vino Business

Published in France to huge media attention and great debate within the wine community worldwide, Vino Business exposes big money interests and corruption within the wine industry in France, particularly in Bordeaux.
For centuries a bastion of tradition and excellence, Bordeaux has in recent years become dogged by controversy, particularly regarding the 2012 classification of the wines of St.-Émilion, the most prestigious appellation of Bordeaux's right bank. St.-Émilion is an area increasingly dominated by big international investors, especially from China, who are keen to speculate on the area's wines and land, some of whose value has increased tenfold in the last decade alone. In the controversial 2012 classification, as Saporta shows, certain châteaux were promoted to a more prestigious class because of insider deals that altered the scoring system for the classification of wines into premier crus and grand crus. This system now takes into account...