Pinot Not: 12 Convicted in Scheme to Substitute Cheaper Grapes in Wine

Wine drinkers take note—that Gallo Pinot Noir you have in your collection may be a fake.

A French court has convicted 12 people in a scheme to substitute Merlot and Syrah grapes for the thin-skinned Pinot Noir grape, the Associated Press reports.

Among those convicted were wine growers, wine merchant Claude Courset of the Ducasse company, and the company that sold Ducasse's wine in the United States, Sieur d'Argues.

The E. & J. Gallo Winery was among those duped by the scheme. Harpers Wine and Spirit says Gallo sold the wine as its Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir brand.

"We believe that the only French pinot noir that was potentially misrepresented to us would have been the 2006 vintage and prior,” said Susan Hensley, vice president of public relations for Gallo, in a statement published by Harpers Wine and Spirit. “We want to assure our consumers that this is not a health and safety issue."

Courset told AP the investigation focused on obscure regulations that fluctuate from country to country. "Our wines are irreproachable,” he said.

Investigators became suspicious when the volume of pinot noir being sold to Gallo from southwestern France exceeded production for the region, Times Online reports. Neither Gallo nor its consumers had complained to France, according to the lawyer for Sieur d'Argues.