Awards and citations:


1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for investdrinks.org

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award




Tuesday 20 December 2011

CavesMaître FRANCE: Questions to Ezequiel Franco

CavesMaître France: Robert Parker presenting his Magical 20

I had hoped to be able to post answers to my questions to Ezequil Franco of CavesMaître. Unfortunately, although he invited me send him questions and provide 'all the answers', I'm haven't as yet received a response. I hope it will soon be possible to post Franco's responses. 

These are the questions I sent him yesterday morning:   

Dear Ezequiel

Many thanks for the invitation to ask questions and to give me all the answers.

Questions on CavesMaître, France

The company
a) When was the company name CavesMaître registered?
b) Why does the name of the company include France? Is the company also registered in France or does the company have offices there?
c) You say:
'Our company is in latin words CAVESMAITRE and in Chinese is 卡斯特'

Although my Chinese is strictly zero, CavesMaître appears to translates as 
酒窖大, which to my untutored eye looks rather different from the above which does translate as Castel –卡斯特'.

Are you misinformed here or is there some explanation that I’m missing?

d) Did the company have any previous names? If so what were they and when were they registered?
e) Has CavesMaître under its current name or previous names ever had an association or worked with Castel Frères/Groupe Castel? 
f) What was the annual turnover of CavesMaître in 2010 and 2009? Either under the CavesMaître name or any previous names?
g) Could you give me details of the brands and companies whose wines CavesMaître import into China. 
h) Did the company or Daniel Li ever register ‘Rioja’ as a trade name in China?
i) What other trade names have been registered by CavesMaître or Daniel Li?


CavesMaître, WineFuture HongKong and Pancho Campo MW
a) When did you first meet Pancho Campo and when did Campo first meet Daniel Li?
b) Was Campo informed of this year’s court case that involved Castel Frères? If he was informed when was this?
c) If he wasn’t informed why was this?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks

Jim 


***

A Google search produces the following undated tweet from Pancho Campo MW. It would be interesting to know what Franco told Campo about CavesMaître France. 


twitter.com/MadwineTV/status/129595696662839298
Thanks to Caves Maitre and my buddy Ezequiel Franco I am learning SOOO much about China. Amazing country. #WFHK11.

6 comments:

Justin Roberts said...

It's an outdated tweet, not twitter...

Jim's Loire said...

Correct Justin – amended!

Hervé LALAU said...

Thanks to CavesMan Budd and my buddy Jim, I'm learning SOOOOOO much about Spain and its wine business habits. Amazing emerging region. Bob.

Michael bishop said...

Stop the witch hunts guys and stop acting like dick Tracy .....u seem to be Playing with peoples lives without solid evidence. Investigate first and then comprehensively publish. This hit and miss Public baiting is not good or professional.

Anonymous said...

Michael,

If people like Jim weren't on top of this who would be? Jim's an investigative journalist, this is his job and he's doing it well. When there's nothing more to report he'll stop. And as for the witch hunt: have you wondered why there are so many so willing to share information? It appears that there are many people who have grievances against Campo. If we are subject to the scrutiny of neither the law nor our peers, we are accountable to no-one and that is surely unacceptable in a civilised society.

Jim's Loire said...

Thanks anon. There seems to be quite a common misunderstanding about investigative journalism - ie that one has a game plan when you start. The reverse is usually the case when you receive a tip off or start on a story – I certainly usually have no idea where it will lead if anywhere.

As you say anon this particular story started with the leaking of a email showing that at least one person was against what was going on. Once we started a number of people have been ready to give us information.