Latest news with #Giuberti
The Independent
04-05-2025
- The Independent
Paris cafes have been caught cheating tourists with cheap wine – here's how to avoid it happening to you
Picture the scene: you're on holiday, revelling in the joy of escaping (most of) the mundane elements of your life. Sitting in the bar of your hotel, you decide to splash out and order a glass of champagne – a real treat. The flute arrives, you take a sip, and something just isn't right... there's a niggling voice telling you it's not champagne. What do you do? Well, if you're me (because, well, this did happen to me), you feel a bit flustered at the thought of having to say something. You doubt yourself, question every aspect of your own tasting ability despite the fact you've been blind-tasting for years, and then finally say something – apologising as you do so. People-pleaser? Moi? Thankfully, the wine in question wasn't champagne (I mean, I knew it all along), and what arrived to replace it – without question, I hasten to add – most definitely was the real deal. But this isn't an easy situation for most people. Despite the rising rouge in my cheeks in the hotel bar that evening, I do have the confidence to know if the wine I'm being served is the wine I've ordered. Most people don't. And this is just one of the reasons why I've been fuming all week at the news that some bars in Paris have been found to be doing the dodgy – pouring a cheaper wine when a more expensive one's been ordered. An undercover investigation published by Le Parisien found that a number of venues across the capital were guilty of wine fraud, with examples such as a chablis (a premium, expensive white wine from Burgundy), sold for €9 (£7.70), being replaced with a more generic and cheaper sauvignon blanc being sold for €5 (£4.25) – whilst the customer was charged the higher amount. Marina Giuberti, one of the undercover sommeliers involved in the investigation, said: 'It's a pity for the customer and for the image of the wine appellation, for the winemaker, and for the restaurant owners who do a good job.' I think I might have been a bit more emphatic in my choice of words than Giuberti, but she's absolutely right – this does a total disservice to every link in the chain of wine production, not to mention giving a boost to the stereotypes about how tourists are treated in Paris, and the disdain the Parisiennes feel towards them. Come on, Paris! I know you're better than this. As a customer, it's always worth remembering that you have some inalienable rights when it comes to ordering and drinking wine. The waiter or sommelier might be positioned as the all-knowing seer, but the reality is that isn't the case; they're not demigods. I urge you to trust yourself. You might not have drunk as much wine as them, but who cares? There's a strong likelihood that you have a good idea of what you do and don't like the taste of. Did you know that you can always ask to see the wine being poured in front of you? It's actually the law in France, and no one has ever questioned me when I've asked for it to happen in the UK, either. Of course, there's nothing that's going to help you if they're 're-potting' the wine (this means pouring a cheaper wine into a more expensive bottle), but even in that situation, you can say, 'I'm sorry, this doesn't taste right to me – do you mind opening another bottle?' And then there's the joy of trying before you buy. Surely this is the great perk of ordering wines by the glass instead of going in head-first with a whole bottle? Any half-decent establishment will be happy to do this. When I owned a wine bar in another lifetime, we served a bar full of wines by the glass, and honestly, I was delighted when people wanted to taste them. It gave me a beautiful opportunity to talk about the wines and find out what styles they enjoyed, and nothing gave me greater pleasure than finding a customer's perfect pour. Good bars and restaurants will be pleased to give you a taster, and if not? Grab your coat and head somewhere that is. I hope that it doesn't taint your love for Paris. It didn't for me. Nowhere in the world does the 'bar a vin' better. For every dodgy place, there's a multitude of outstanding wine bars and bistros run by incredibly passionate, brilliant and kind staff who want to give drinkers and diners the best possible experience. Just let me know if you'd like me to share my little black book on the City of Light (and her great bars) with you one day...
The Independent
29-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Paris cafes caught pouring cheap wine after customers pay for posh plonk
Cafes in tourist areas of Paris have been caught covertly pouring cheap wine in place of the premium glasses paid for by diners. An investigation by Le Parisien newspaper found that wine fraud is ripe in the French capital, with tourists often being the victims. The outlet claims cafes are replacing fancy wines with budget alternatives. They discovered the fraud when sending two sommeliers to taste out the deception while pretending to be tourists. Of the wine ordered by the glass, investigators said that a pour of chablis or sancerre at around €9 (£7.65) was substituted for a sauvignon, the cheapest wine on the menu at around €5 (£4.25). One of the undercover sommeliers, wine merchant Marina Giuberti, found a €7.50 sancerre had been replaced by a cheaper sauvignon priced at €5.60, but she was charged the higher rate. After complaining, the waiter brought her another glass of the wrong wine. Giuberti said: 'It's a pity for the customer and for the image of the wine appellation, for the winemaker and for the restaurant owners who do a good job.' Staff at brasseries and cafes in Paris confirmed that the practice is often encouraged by bosses looking to maximise their profits. Sarah, a waitress with 30 years of experience working in restaurants, told Le Parisien: 'I might put leftover wine in a single bottle for happy hour, or replace Bardolino with Chianti, which is much cheaper and tastes completely different.' The 'repotting' technique involves switching out the wine a customer has ordered with the contents of a more budget bottle. A former employee of a Montmartre brasserie, Tristan, added that staff were 'told off by the owner if the most expensive bottle went down too quickly', and only once did a sommelier customer discover the ruse. According to the hospitality worker, aside from French locals, 'all other customers were getting ripped off'. He said: 'When I saw American tourists arriving on the terrace, I knew they were going to be had.' Experts told Le Parisien that, by law, customers can insist on having wine poured from the bottle in front of them with the label visible. Jérôme Bauer, Alsace winemaker and leader of the National Confederation of AOC (appellation contrôlée), told the outlet: 'Cheating the customer rebounds on us, the producers, because a customer who has ordered a Côte du Rhône and gets served a Bordeaux wine will probably be disappointed and can turn away from that wine in the future.'
