A Belgian TV show has tricked the Gilbert et Gaillard international wine competition by disguising a bottle of cheap wine as a grand cru. The jury fell into the trap and awarded this bottle with an original value of 2.50 euros a gold medal.
Medals from wine competitions should not always be relied upon. Such is the moral of this trap organized by the Belgian program “On est pas des pigeons”, which manipulated a bottle of wine for 2.50 euros to turn it into a Grand Cru in order to lure the jury of the wine competition into a trap. Gilbert and Gaillard.
While the competition had brought its members together for a blind tasting, renowned Belgian institution Gilbert et Gaillard was literally caught up in a program popular in the country. It was Belgium’s best sommelier in 1988, Eric Boschman, who turned a bottle of cheap wine into a grand cru using a false label.
The Rave Jury
After the opening, he presented his colleagues with “his great vintage” called “Château Colombier”, which was allegedly made from grape varieties from the Côte de Sambre and Meuse (Wallonia) and was considered “extraordinary”. The bottle, whose emblem was a dove in reference to the show, was actually just a bottle that had just been bought in the supermarket for 2.50 euros.
Enough to convince the entire jury, as he described that the bottle benefits from a “bright garnet red robe”, with a restrained nose combining stone fruit, currants and subtle oak, a smooth, nervous and rich mouth with clean young aromas , which promise a nice taste complexity. Evolution on fine spices and a touch of sooty silk, very interesting,” the jury explained.
A well-made joke that nonetheless reveals the scams of certain competitions and the lack of professionalism of some specialists, much to Eric Boschman’s displeasure.