Georges Duboeuf

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Georges Duboeuf (born 1933 in Crèches, France) is the founder of Les Vins Georges Duboeuf, one of the largest and best-known wine merchants in France. The company is known especially for its popularization and production of Beaujolais wines, leading to Duboeuf's nicknames of le roi du Beaujolais (the king of Beaujolais) or sometimes pape du Beaujoleais (pope of Beaujolais).

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[edit] Early life and career

Duboeuf was born on a Good Friday, April 14, 1933 in Crèches, near the village of Chaintré, in the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation of France. Pouilly-Fuissé consists of five villages, southwest of the commune of Mâcon, in the central French wine-making region of Burgundy. Duboeuf was raised on a small farm, where his family owned a few acres of chardonnay vines. His father died when he was very young, and his uncle and older brother, Roger, took over the business.

Duboeuf helped on the family vinyard growing up, cranking the manual grape crusher when he was just six. At the age of 18, he began delivering wine on his bicycle from producers to local restaurants. He began bottling Beaujolais to meet a customer's commission, and went on to form a syndicate of 45 local growers, the Ecrin Mâconnais-Beaujolais. The organization fell apart due to squabbling, and Duboeuf became a négociant in 1964, when he founded Les Vins Georges Duboeuf.

He married his wife Rolande in the early 1960s, and has two children, Fabienne and Franck.

[edit] Les Vins Georges Duboeuf

Duboeuf's business produces more than 25 million cases of wine annually. He is almost single-handedly responsible for popularizing the annual Beaujolais nouveau phenomenon, and has won awards for his wines. His wine labels are easily recognizeable by their use of colorful flower images and the distinctive Duboeuf insignia.

Georges Duboeuf still heads the company as of 2007, at the age of 74, and his son Franck Duboeuf is considered his heir apparent.

[edit] Wine fraud scandal

The Vins Georges Duboeuf company was charged in 2005 with mixing low-grade wine with fine vintages after a patchy 2004 harvest.[1] Georges Duboeuf denied wrongdoing, blaming human error and pointing out that none of the affected wine was released to consumers.[1] The production manager directly responsible admitted his actions and resigned, and a court found that both "fraud and attempted fraud concerning the origin and quality of wines" had been committed.[1] Fewer than 200,000 liters of the company's annual 270 million liter production were implicated, but L'Affaire Duboeuf, as it was called, was considered a serious scandal.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Samuel, Henry. (2006-07-05.) "King of Beaujolais is convicted over adulterated wines." (News website.) Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  2. ^ Walt, Vivienne. (2005-10-03.) "The grapes of wrath." (News website.) CNN.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.

[edit] References

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