Category: The Industry

Wine Fraud and the Restaurant Wine Buyer

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By: Steve Morey The mission is clear.  As a Restaurateur, Wine Director or Cellar Master, your prime directive is to create, procure, store, market and serve wines appropriate for your eatery and valued guests.  This may include acquiring unique, highly coveted wines of the world that takes international buying experience,…

Premier Cru

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The FBI is Investigating Whether High-End Wine Retailer Ran a Ponzi Scheme  For 35 years, Premier Cru, a retail store in Berkeley, California was a place to which wine lovers turned to find Bordeaux and Burgundy at a discount. Advertising its wares as 10% to 15% lower than other high-end…

Antique Wine Company

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Members, please note the liquidation, and the appointment of liquidators of Antique Wine Company. These are: Maxine Reid and Andrew Tate of Kreston Reeves LLP, Montague Place, Quayside, Chatham Maritime, Chatham, Kent ME4 4QU restructuring@krestonreeves.com 0330 124 1399 Anyone who thinks they are owed money OR who has consigned wine…

Gil Lempert-Schwarz Drops Suit Against Maureen Downey

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We are pleased to note that Gil Lempert-Schwarz has now dropped his lawsuit against Maureen Downey and Chai Consulting, LLC.  This unfounded claim arose from Ms Downey’s continued quest, online and in person, to expose those who knowingly sell counterfeit wine, defraud consumers, and those who facilitate such sales.  Whilst…

California’s Premier Cru Bust by at Least $70 Million

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Facing mounting debts and a rapidly rising number of legal complaints against the company, Premier Cru filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Friday January 8th 2016 at 1.23pm. The petition was filed at the Oakland Division of the Bankruptcy Court of Northern California by John Fox and Hector Ortega, Premier…

Restaurant Best Practices to Avoid Abetting Fraud

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The mission is clear.  As a Restaurateur, Wine Director or Cellar Master, your prime directive is to create, procure, store, market and serve wines appropriate for your eatery and valued guests.  This may include acquiring unique, highly coveted wines of the world that takes international buying experience, an educated palate,…

Misrepresented Wine

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The phrase “counterfeit wine” fails to account for the anomalies of the wine authentication business. A more accurate phrase, from a legal standpoint, would be “misrepresented wine” because the nature of wine is that the label becomes the exclusive representation of what is enclosed in the bottle. In the wine…