Daniel Li (CavesMaître France), Robert Parker and Pancho Campo MW
Hong Kong November 2011
Mr Li and his CavesMaître appear to have been ditched
Pancho Campo@WineFuture HK and his major sponsor: CavesMaître (the Chinese Castel)
Today Harpers
'Wine & Spirit Trade Review' has published a 'news report' entitled Pancho Campo
looks outside wine after ‘disgusting attacks'. The 'article' covers Campo's move away from wine and on the events company called Chrand
Management (Corporate Incentives and Events Management, SL).
Pancho Campo MW alleges in the article that 'disgusting attacks' on him and his close family have driven him away, at least in part, from wine. Campo has previously claimed that his children suffered attacks and harassment. If this is correct, then I would could condemn such behaviour as strongly as Campo does himself.
If, however, Campo is widening 'disgusting attacks' to cover 'Campogate' and the way that he and The Wine Academy of Spain organised Jay Miller's Spanish visits for The Wine Advocate then I would reject this as spin. If Campo thought my various posts on Jim's Loire were 'disgusting' rather than fair comment, he could have carried out his threat to sue. Campo claimed on decanter.com 8th December 2011) 'that he would continue his legal action against Jim Budd'.
If he is indeed continuing 'his legal action' Campo and his lawyers are being extraordinarily discreet as I have not to date received any communication from either Campo or his lawyers.
Following Jay Miller's retirement from the Wine Advocate, Campo has decided he needs to broaden his portfolio away from just wine and return to promoting the sorts of events that he used to promote in Dubai and before that in Spain.
According to Harpers 'Specialist
lifestyle events company Chrand
Management has bought the Wine Academy of Spain to help run a
series of consumer events featuring gastronomy, sport, wine and culture.'
Unfortunately Chrand Management's website makes no mention of when the company
was founded nor who its directors are or nor whether it has had any existence
independent of Pancho Campo MW and The Wine Academy of Spain. As far as I can
see all its history and the events portrayed on the website
relate to Campo. A Google search on Chrand Management brings up no past history. Chrand Management would appear to be a recently formed vehicle to rebrand
Campo – Charade Management SL, perhaps? Certainly this would be a more memorable name.
Campo is certainly a director of Chrand and appears to still be Presidente of The Wine Academy:
Chrand Management shares the same address as The Wine Academy of Spain:El Rosario 2, Edificio VidaRed Planta Baja, Local 1 - 29620 Marbella – Málaga.
It is notable
that under Chrand's 'the clients'
section' – 'Our events have been sponsored by some of the most
prestigious international brands' – there is no mention of Daniel Li and
CavesMaître (The Chinese Castel), although Mr Li's CavesMaître was a major
sponsor of WineFuture HK only last November.
'The scope of activities will surprise you' tweet (20th March 2012)
+ Chrand Management joined Facebook on 16th March (2012)
Their scope may have surprised Roger Waters:
Doubtless Waters may have noticed that Campo is no longer claiming to have promoted a Pink Floyd concert in Dubai, a venue they never played. He might be surprised at the possibility that Chrand Management might have been responsible for the whole of Waters' 'In the Flesh Tour' – 'one of the events we managed and promoted'. The 'In the Flesh Tour' involved at total of 105 concerts over 1999, 2000 and 2002. I suspect Campo meant that he promoted one of these concerts: on April 15th 2002 at the Golf & Yacht Club in Dubai. Although it is an achievement to have put on one of the these concerts even if it represents less than 1% of the events.
One of Chrand management's claimed successes is Vinoble: 'Vinoble 2010
The Wine Academy managed the 2011* edition
of Vinoble, the world´s most important fair for sweet, dessert and fortified
wines. It was held in Jerez, Spain in May 2010.'
The bi-annual Vinoble was founded in 1998 and there were six editions before Campo and The Wine Academy took over the running of the 2010 edition. The 2012 edition has now been cancelled.
I'm reminded of an old Who classic:
21 comments:
Most probably Campo doesn´t care anymore about you Jim, in the same way we do not care about him. May be that hurst your ego Jim but we want to read about wine, this has become boring. One clarification: reading that web, it says that The Wine Academy managed Vinoble 2010 not 2011, and it mentions that they managed only one event in 2002 with R. Waters not the entire tour. You gotta be fair! If Campo is staying away from wine and sticking to sports and entertainment.....isn´t that what you wanted? By the way, it is Easter Jim......enjoy the holiday and please give us more insights about Loire wines.
Mr. Budd, I am aware that Campo's family was attacked, even relatives who have nothing to do with wine and his own father who died more than 20 years ago. The worse was the harrasment suffered by his 10 year old daughter. Trust me, this is not an invention. Regardless of what happened with Campo, Miller and Parker no human being and no family deserves to go through these type of pressure. Believe me, it has been excessive and you and other serious bloggers should try to avoid being the trigger of more attacks. Allow me to remain anonymous because my family name is well known in the industry. Thank you for your attention.
His seeking a legal remedy against you was probably spending money on a lawyer who said “you want to do what” and sent him a bill. He can’t milk the MW in the industry anymore so on to the next career.
Anon: 'you and other serious bloggers should try to avoid being the trigger of more attacks.'
'The worse was the harrasment suffered by his 10 year old daughter.'
Anon. I have made it clear that I condemn such harassment. However, it cannot be used to muzzle fair comment on someone's proefessional activities who chooses the limelight. On his Facebook page Pancho Campo describes himself as a 'public figure'.
You should also investigate the Institute of Masters of Wine. Firstly, a masters degree, according to the EU legislation, must be granted by a university or an accredited institution. Secondly, candidates must complete at least 500 hours of classes. Therefore, all those 300 MWs are not really masters. Eventually the institution will face problems because of this new legislation. The IMW should either change the name of the qualification or follow the corresponding procedures. You should also investigate several MWs because that demand payment for visiting wineries, regions and events. Dig a little bit Mr. Budd
Anon. Thank you for your kind suggestion about the IMW. However, as you appear to have researched this why don't you publish it yourself on the blogsphere?
Perhaps this is why Pancho Campo appears to have stopped using the MW, although I understand that the IMW process is still underway.
A comment received from a wine writing colleague this morning:
Dear Jim,
I read your blog today about Pancho…and then I read some of the responses. I am always amazed at how naive members of the British wine trade are.
1. Their bleats about the harassment of poor Pancho’s children: That had nothing to do with blogger Budd. School children and most teenagers are not logging on to Jim’s Loire nor are they reading Decanter Magazine.
2. Pancho’s career history and declarations indicate that he is most certainly a fabulist. If you – ah, let’s say – have a history of stretching the truth, then anything you may say in the future is suspect. Including, I might add, the children’s harassment ploy, which is designed to draw attention away from the real issue. What comes to mind is the National Lampoon cover from a million years ago that showed a worried looking dog with a gun pointed at its head. The caption: Buy this magazine or we shoot the dog. Once you introduce the idea of children or puppies into your argument, logic and any analytical assessment disintegrate. Grown ups know this and adjust their "shit detector" as Hemmingway called it.
Boy am I steamed.
Yours,
I am not a blogger Mr. Budd but I do hold an MBA, this is how I know the legislation. It is anoying for me to see 300 guys calling themselves masters when they are not. A bunch of wine traders get together and issue a masters degree......very questionable practice. I work for a group of wineries and in numerous ocassions the owners have paid for visits and tasting to MWs and well known journalists.
Anon. Please email the details of payments to MWs and well known journalists to back up your allegation.
I think there should be some clarification as to what "paying for visits" means. Wineries pay into generic or promotional bodies to give them a wider profile to international palates; who invite journalists, educators, photographers, sommeliers to attend the country/region and where their on the ground costs are covered by the body and hosted by the wineries. Generally the invitees pay to get themselves there. On the other hand, if you are running an event and need key speakers/moderators/panelists then of course they should be paid! This is a business after all! As to the IMW point; it is a self study programme which involves a lot more than 500 hours of intensive study, although not in a class' format but through mentoring. There are many levels of achivement or Doctorates that are awarded on research and not on lectured classes. I do not think the IMW will be in the least phased by the 500 class attendance hour legislation.
Please keep updating us on this, Jim. As a wine professional it is very important to me that members of our professional are perceived as ethical, and those that are note are rooted out. I for one am interested to find out how this all finally plays, and find your reporting to be very responsible and fair.
Thanks for the new comments. I'm hoping that the anonymous poster who made the allegation about paying for visits will provide some evidence and clarification.
Anon re: Master of Wine.
You're confusing a qualification of a professional body, with the concept of a masters degree.
You could level the same accusation at 'Worshipful master' in the Masons, master bakers, master craftsmen, etc.
The term 'master' is not the same as 'masters degree'.
__________________________
Anon with the allegation. It is indeed important to back the comment up. Perhaps better indeed to contact the IMW with the details. Should they be proven, then in light of the Campo affair, they may feel obliged to take firm action. If you do have evidence, then please publish or at least submit that evidence to the IMW.
regards
Ian
“masters degree, according to the EU legislation, must be granted by a university or an accredited institution..........”. What about a Master Mariner and why do you care?
I think the Master of Wine is not nor has it ever been portrayed as a Masters degree in an academic sense, if anything it would be a Ph.D level program as it takes a good 5 years to get near it.
Keep up the good work Jim.
It is interesting to see that an apparent supporter of Pancho Campo is now seeking to rubbish the MW qualification.
No evidence has so far been provided to back up or clarify the allegation that MWs and leading journalists have been paid to visit certain wineries. It should be treated as unfounded until credible evidence is produced to back it up.
There appears to be some confusion here. Master of Wine is what is known as a trade qualification, as is Master Brewer, as issued by the Institute of Brewing & Distilling, or Master Baker, issued by the National Association of Master Bakers (NAMB). It, of course, differs from qualifications overseen and awarded by universities.
The inclusion of Pancho Campo’s father in the analysis was not gratuitous. He entered the equation because a police investigation, verified by full judicial process and released to public records, revealed that Pancho Campo was the direct recipient of money that had been criminally extorted by Campo’s father prior to his being killed following release from jail.
Posted on behalf of Gerry Dawes:
Sr. Campo (and his wife) seem enamored of the word "disgusting." They use it over and over again to describe anyone who questions Campo's highly questionable activities.
In fact, posts by "Anonymous" have turned up on blogs a number of times defending Mr. Campo and his activities and the word "disgusting" often appears like the writer's identifying phrase in these disgustingly disingenuous posts. Like the lengthy one that someone in the Campo camp tried to post on my blog in 2009, claiming to be a Rioja bodeguero (winery owner), whose English, if somewhat flawed, nevertheless was stamped by the use of the word "disgusting."
Many of these posts, who must be from someone who is not really very smart, try to disguise their real agenda by pretending to be some third party who vouches for Mr. Campo's nobility and innocence.
This line in one of the current comments here is typical: "Mr. Budd, I am aware that Campo's family was attacked, even relatives who have nothing to do with wine and his own father who died more than 20 years ago."
I have to ask what Mr. Campo's father having died 20 years ago has to do with anything, unless they mean the documented evidence of the grifter, con-man, extortionist crimes (posing as a member of the terroirist organization ETA, no less) that he committed against fellow professionals and for which went to jail. Now, that is truly disgusting!
And so is yet another transparent attempt by the same "Anonymous" in the comment that contains such phrases as "Trust me, . ." and "no family deserves to go through theses type of pressure" and "Believe me, . ."
We have seen this dragging of Campo's family into this and using supposed attacks and harassment against them as a reason to cease and desist from looking into his activities.
I seriously doubt that anyone in Campo's family has been harassed at all unless they consider reading multiple newspaper and blog reports questioning his activities, Interpol search warrants and the like to be harassment.
Perhaps, if Mr. Campo cease operating the way he normally seems to operate such "harassment" would indeed cease and desist.
But, Mr. Campo knows something about harassing people himself, like he did me when he had his lawyer call me at home in the evening threatening me with all kinds of legal, social and business actions back in 2009.
And like someone in his camp did the same year when they tried to post a particularly disparaging document claiming that I was now "persona non grata" in Spain, a country I have been living and traveling in for longer than the Chilean-born Señor. Campo has been alive.
I could go on and on, but this whole thing is beginning to disgust me.
Gerry Dawes
Gerry and Harold. Thanks for your detailed comments.
I think, however, that credit should be given to Campo snr for having confessed to his crimes. These were attempting to extort money from his superiors at the Barcelona Clinic where he worked as an anesthetist by sending threats demanding money posing as an ETA terrorist. He was arrested in 1983 and following a trial was sentenced eight years in prison. Campo apparently needed money to meet his gambling debts.
It is likely that Campo snr’s arrest and imprisonment brought Pancho’s medical studies to a premature end.
I have just met Pancho campo in Marbella last week. I was visiting friends who have decided to retire, and die there, by boredom and excessive alcohol consumption. As with everyone else in that soulless place, they have become masters of reinvention and have now decided to become wine experts and start an academy. Pancho invited me onto his radio programme on food and wine. He is not at all distancing himself from the wine world ... au contraire. He is organising several new wine ventures (tours, clubs, radio programmes). Whilst I appreciated the chance to promote my upcoming climate change and wine book and other wine books, and had a fun time doing so (the Radio Europe presenter was a consummate professinal and highly intelligent), I found that Pancho indulged in self-congratulatory references to himself with every sentence. So sadly amusing. He refers to himself as an MW at every opportunity and reminds the audience that he started the Wine Academy, initiated the Climate Change Conferences, knows Al Gore, knows everyone, in fact, oh , and was a tennis pro. We ran into him at a beach club and my family and guests had to hear it all again. It is as though he has a script memorised. On our second meeting he confessed to me that he has a lot of enemies and that an english guy called Jim Budd has ruined his life. Believe me, after even a few minutes in his company, it is clear that this is this sort of man who very capably manages ruining his life all on his own.
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