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 酒窖大师, 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. 

1.     Twitter / Pancho Campo: Thanks to Caves Maitre and ...

twitter.com/MadwineTV/status/129595696662839298

Thanks to Caves Maitre and my buddy Ezequiel Franco I am learning SOOO much about China. Amazing country. #WFHK11.

WineFuture HK: CavesMaître – 'one of the most important importer-distributor of wines in China'

Robert Parker@The Magical 20 and CavesMaître, FRANCE

Daniel Li (CavesMaître FRANCE), Robert Parker and Pancho Campo MW

 

 Pancho Campo MW with group on stage with CavesMaître logo in pride of place  

Last Thursday I posted a story – 'WineFuture HK: major sponsor – CavesMaître – 'a stolen tradename'. CavesMaître, FRANCE was one of the major sponsors of WineFutureHK. This year the company took legal action against Groupe Castel for using the tradename 'Castel', which CavesMaîte (or the company under a previous name) had registered a number of years before in China.

Robert Parker sat underneath a logo CavesMaître FRANCE during his magical 20 tasting, the highlight of WineFutureHK. Daniel Li, boss of CavesMaître, sat on Parker's right on top table with Pancho Campo MW on his left (see top photo).

This morning I received the following comment from Ezequiel Franco, who works for CavesMaître. Franco claims that I'm entirely mistaken. However, it would appear that he may have confused two sets of Chinese symbols.       

'Ezequiel Franco said...

Dear Jim Loire. My name is Ezequiel Franco I am from Spain and I am 27 years old. I am the foreigner working in CAVESMAITRE with Daniel Li in Shanghai in China. I am so upset with what I just read in your blog cause it is so far away from the reality and you are trying to hurt us. I strongly believe that when somebody talk about other people to an audiencie must be sure what he is saying, because can go against law, everybody must be responsible of his acts and words. I am not going to start a fight in this blog I am only going to writte this comment. I invite to you to contact us (contact me unless you can speak chinese) and It will be a pleasure to inform you and give you all the answers to you, to put down all what you wrote. Our company is in latin words CAVESMAITRE and in Chinese is 卡斯特, we are not "stoling" (like you said) any brand. So please not defame more our brand and our team. Our company is one of the most important importer-distributor of wines in China and my boss DANIEL LI, has an excellent HONOR and REPUTATION in China and rest of world.'

**

I posted two follow up comments: 

'Thank you for your comment. I will certainly send you an email with some questions. I'm intrigued that the company is called CavesMaître, France. Is it registered in France or are their offices in France?'

**

Ezequiel 

You would appear to be misinformed:

'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 酒窖大师, which to my untutored eye looks rather different from the above (卡斯特) which does translate as Castel.

 **

I have accepted Ezequiel Franco's kind invitation to contact him and ask questions. I look forward to his replies. In the meantime I would be very grateful for any further information about CavesMaître and Daniel Li. Although CavesMaître is apparently 'one of the most important importer-distributor of wines in China', I can find curiously little about neither the company nor Daniel Li on the internet.  

 Daniel Li and Robert Parker – hope the great man isn't signing away the rights to his name in China!

Time for a caption contest perhaps?


**

Rober Parker Grand Tasting (above and below) from Madwine

I see Campo continues to insist on calling the great man – Rober Parker. Revenge, perhaps, for Robert calling him Poncho?*   

  Photo credits: WineFuture Hong Kong www.winefuture.hk

*20.12.11. The t has now been added to Rober on Madwine TV.