Fred Franzia, the Questionable Pillar of the US Wine Industry

Fred T Franzia, was undeniably – to use a useful old word – a scoundrel who had little respect for rules, regulations and niceties. Some of the people he offended and annoyed had good ethical and commercial reasons to be upset.

The former group can point to the fact that knowingly selling wine made from cheap grapes under the name of pricier ones is against the law – and led to Franzia paying a huge fine and – nominally at least - temporarily losing his role at the head of his company.

Labelling wine made from cheap Central Valley grapes with Napa brands was, by contrast, initially entirely within the regulations, thanks to legal loopholes that were later closed, but it undeniably involved cheating his customers and competing grossly unfairly with competitors who were playing by the rules.

There were those who simply didn’t like his manner, including what former Tesco buyer, Phil Reedman MW recalls as “his facility of incorporating the F word into each and every sentence. Verb, adjective, noun and more.” A 1994 Los Angeles Times article described him as  “smart but boastful, arrogant and brash, ready to intimidate employees, squeeze growers and fight battles in court”. Steven Lapham, the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Franzia, was quoted in the same piece as saying “Employees and others with whom [he] deals are afraid of him… I’m not sure what it is, if it’s his manner or the economic power he holds.”

And then there was the way he gave the metaphorical finger to almost everything the wine world holds sacred. More