My tasting of the year: three centuries of Bourgueil
We have decided to join the annual end of year doling out
of awards:
Investigative
story of the year
The part played by
Don Cornwell on the Wine Berserkers thread in the exposure and arrest of Rudy Kurniawan in particular the Burgundies due
to be auctioned by Spectrum Wine Auctions and Vanquish Wine Ltd of London on
8th February 2012 until the lots were pulled just before the auction.
The full
repercussions of RK's arrest and charges of counterfeiting are yet to be known.
If he is found guilty, will he sing and implicate any associates? Or was he
just a lone operator?
What full effect
will a guilty verdict have on the fine wine market remains to be seen.
Runner-ups
Le VifL'Expess and FT: valuation of Nobles Crus wine fund
At the end of September questions were raised by Le Vif L'Express
and the Financial Times over the valuation of the Nobles Crus wine investment
fund run by Elite Advisers. Despite a number of attempts to rubbish Liv-Ex data,
which is used to value at least ten other wine investment funds, questions over
the validity of the valuations remain.
Vincent Pousson
For naming the leading investor in the Wine Advocate Robert
Parker's apparent sale of his magazine and media interests and his move to
semi-retirement. Remaining true to tradition Parker's announcement was released
by Hamfisted PR Advisers.
Very close second:
Tasting of museum stock of Domaine Huet (Vouvray) back to 1924 with
Noël Pinguet in London to mark the purchase by Berry Bros & Rudd of all the
stock of old Huet vintages from 1975 to 1919 and 1989.
France 2 labels 1855 as an 'arnaque'
Investor
of the year:
Jean-Pierre Meyers who finally decided that the reputation
of Internet wine company 1855 was too toxic and withdrew his money.
‘Arnaque’ share of
the year:
1855 – over the
past few months its value has oscillated between 0.02€ and 0.03€. Will it
fall further in 2013? Does 0.01€
beckon?
Not even a bat's
squeak award
Union des Grands Crus de
Bordeaux for having remained dumb and mute despite 1855 continuing to trash its
members’ reputation and that of en primeur in general. Will Olivier Bernard, the newly
elected president, follow the lead recently set by Philippe Castéja and the
Conseil des Grands Crus Classés en 1855?
Solicitor’s
letter of the year:
Mischon de
Reya sent on behalf of Elite Advisers, custodians of the Nobles Crus Wine Fund
(December 17th 2012) – who ‘have general concerns as to the nature and
tone of your articles’.
Best cycling commentary
French commentary on Mark Cavendish's brilliant sprint win in Brive.
Looking to the
future
Good luck to
Natalie MacLean’s new website – The Purloined Review (EAP – att) – to
be launched early in the New Year.
Hilarious harassment claim of the year:
Do you feel
you were unfairly victimised in the so-called Campogate affair?
‘What do you
think? This started back in 2009, when blogger [Jim] Budd called me regarding
the Interpol issue. At first I did not think anything of it, but then he began
to demand answers to his questions, or else he would assume that the
accusations against me were true. Quite frankly, I did not feel obliged to
answer to him. I guess he never forgave me for ignoring him, so then his
obsession got out of hand, to the point he has harassed some of my
collaborators, my closest relatives and some of their business associates who
have nothing to do with wine, quite disturbing because he has done this non
stop for more than 3 years.’
This is Pancho
Campo (sin MW) at his inventive best. If there was indeed harassment of Campo’s
closest relatives I unreservedly condemn this.
Naturally The Drinks Business didn't bother to contact me before publishing this tripe. I have had very little contact with any of
Campo’s relatives or business associates. In early September 2009 I spoke very briefly
on the phone once to Melissa Butler, Campo’s wife, when trying to contact Campo
for a comment on the Interpol red notice story that Adam Lechmere and I would
run on decanter.com (4th September 2012).
I
also emailed James Butler, Campo's father-in-law, in November 2009 regarding the
short lived CIE Marbella – Centre for
International Education of Marbella. Butler was president, which claimed to
have affiliations with universities in the United States as well as Middlesex
University. CIE did have indeed have affiliations with American Universities arranged
by Butler as stated but not with Middlesex, although the University had held
some inconclusive discussions with Campo.
Publicity material for the CIE Marbella
Wine courses offered by The Wine Academy including Christie's Wine Course
Campo
was also preparing to claim that his Wine Academy could offer Christie’s Wine Courses.
Totally untrue as he had been very firmly told by Irmgard
Pickering, managing director of Christie’s Education, that Christie's Education do not outsource their courses and he wasn't going to be an exception.
A call from Pancho Campo to Interpol cleared his name!!
There were other gems in the 'interview':
Managing to
overturn the Interpol Red Notice:
PC: ‘Once
we found out about the situation only in 2009, I contacted headquarters in
Lyon, sent the papers they requested and my name was removed immediately. It
was so clear that I didn't need a lawyer.’
These are brazen lies from Pancho Campo (sin MW). He must have been aware he could safely
say whatever came into his head completely secure in the knowledge that his faithful scribe,
editor of The Drinks Business, would not be doing any fact checking.
Campo certainly knew by sometime in
March 2009 that he was wanted by Interpol as he was stopped and questioned for
a number of hours when he passed through Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. After
this Campo couldn't travel to the USA for fear of being arrested, so had to
send others to run his Spanish wine educational programme. In late
September/early October 2009 Campo nominally stepped down from running Wine FutureRioja (http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/484201/pancho-campo-resigns-to-focus-on-clearing-name).
His name was not finally removed from the Interpol wanted list until the second half of July 2010.
Rather than a simple phone call it is
more likely that getting his name off the Interpol list cost Campo a
considerable sum in lawyers’
fees.
In The Drinks
Business ‘interview’ Campo also claimed that Harold Heckle and I somehow
manipulated the emails. Why Pancho imagines that we would need to alter the
highly incriminating email he sent from Tuscany is beyond me.
Previous contenders for this harassment award have included
the feisty entrepreneur Stephen Cleeve who claimed through his media lawyers
that I was harassing him and breaching his privacy.
(http://investdrinks-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/harassment-privacy-press-freedom-and.html)
Memories of
the Olympics
In this
Olympic year it is good to be able look back 20 years to the Barcelona Olympics
and to enjoy footage of one of Chile’s great and authentic sporting heroes.
Unfortunately it would appear that this video helped to persuade Miguel Torres
that he should have nothing to do with the much-vaunted Future Economy
Barcelona 2012, disappointingly had to be cancelled ignominiously a few days
before it was due to take place.
.
