Already provoking debate and garnering significant attention in France and within the wine world, Vino Business is a surprising and eye-opening book about the dark side of French wine by acclaimed investigative journalist Isabelle Saporta.
While Bordeaux has been a bastion of winemaking tradition and excellence for centuries, in recent decades the industry has changed dramatically under the influence of large-scale international investors. French insurance companies, international fashion houses, and Chinese businessmen are all speculating on the area's wines and land, some of whose value has increased tenfold in the last decade alone. Saporta investigates in detail the 2012 classification of the wines of Saint-Émilion, the most prestigious appellation of Bordeaux's right bank, which has come into disrepute, not least because the scoring system was changed in order to give points for a chteaux's lecture facilities and the size of its parking lot.
A shocking exposé of the French wine world and a cri de coeur for the lost values of traditional winemaking, Vino Business pulls back the curtain on the secret domain of Bordeaux, a land ever more in thrall to the grapes of wealth.
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"Gossip as poisonous as pesticides, anonymous informants, rampant greed . . . the latest primetime TV drama? No, it's just St.-Émilion. . . . A new book,Vino Business, by French journalist Isabelle Saporta, has caused a firestorm for its criticism of the French wine trade. . . . If it's causing this much uproar, thinks Lucile Carle, whose family owns St.-Émilion Chteau Croque-Michotte, 'it's because she put her finger on the sore spot.'" - Wine Spectator
"Saporta doesn't pull any punches, portraying an industry rife with enormous egos and long histories of trying to become even more profitable, tradition be damned . . . Saporta is not afraid to name names and highlight the ramifications of a few elites' backroom machinations on smaller producers, as well as on France's beloved wine industry as a whole. Saporta's precision in identifying her targets and laying out supporting evidence adds drama to an already-melodramatic saga, and teetotalers and oenophiles alike will find it hard to resist." - Publishers Weekly
"Vivid insights emerge into the hard, cold business practices of speculative investors jealously guarding wine 'brands' . . . Saporta incisively and unflinchingly documents fundamental transformations away from small, family estates . . . Colorful stories of greed, self-dealing and corruption, as well as instances of valiant resistance." - Dave DeSimone,Pittsburgh Tribune Review
"Is Premier Cru wine all just a con? Car parks and bribes influence the classification of wines in the Bordeaux region of southwest France according to [this] new book." - Daily Mail(UK) ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Isabelle Saporta is an investigative journalist and documentary film-maker. In 2011, she published "The Black Book of Agriculture," which sold more than 60,000 copies in France alone. "Vino Business" is her first book to be translated into English. She lives in Paris, France.
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