Winemaker's gripe with bunch of officials

For British winemaker Bob Lindo, it did not sound like a complicated task.

And he was happy to provide a EU official with some of his grapes for testing.

But instead of sending just one employee to pick up the fruit, he was amazed when a whole bunch arrived.

Mr Lindo, who has won several awards for his wine, says „thousands of pounds of taxpayers money“ was wasted after four officials travelled to his farm to carry out the „grape sampling exercise.“

The team consisted of two officials from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a member of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and an inspector from The Wine Standards Board.

They travelled to Mr Lindo’s vineyard in Cornwall to make sure he was obeying European wine-making rules which mean producers must grow only one variety of grapes on the same plot of land.

Mr Lindo claims the group told him they had travelled to the South West the night before by train and had each stayed in a local hotel.

The 57-year-old said: „It’s utterly disgraceful that four officials came down to Cornwall just to pick some grapes. Four of them, when one would have done.“

„Clearly these people were just on a jolly to enjoy a spot of grape picking at the taxpayers’ expense.“

„If you multiply salaries, train fares, hotel rooms, breakfasts, lunches and dinners by four, I think it cost something in the region of £3,000 to pick a bunch of grapes.“

„It’s a colossal waste of money.“

Mr Lindo’s 16-acre vineyard produces 100,000 bottles of wine a year and has won the Top English Wine Award at the Decanter World Wine Awards for its 2005 Camel Valley Bacchus wine.

And after being told an official would be visiting the vineyard on Wednesday morning Bob prepared a 10kg bunch of his quality grapes ready for collection.

But the officials refused to take the pre-prepared bunch and demanded to pick their own.

Bob refused and there were heated scene at the gates of the vineyard in the village of Nanstallon near Bodmin.

Eventually the four left empty-handed and have since warned him that he has 28-days to comply with their request.

Yesterday Bob – who has run the vineyard since 1982 with wife Annie, 53, and son Sam, 30, said: „I work 18 hours a day and haven’t got time for people whose idea of hard work is sending four people to do something a child could do in thirty seconds.“

„They gave me 36 hours notice of their visit and so to save time I had the 10kg of grapes waiting for them.“

„But they insisted on picking their own grapes and offered payment. I told them we didn’t sell grapes at this vineyard. We never had and we never will.“

EC wine regulations are enforced in the UK by the Wine Standards Board, which is jointly sponsored by the Food Standards Agency and the Vintners’ Company – the UK trade industry body.

Defra are also involved in regulating the industry and has handed some of its responsibilities to the FSA.

Yesterday an FSA spokesman said an official had gone to the vineyard to provide „technical advice.“ A spokesman for Defra added that the visit was a „legal requirement“ and that one of the officials was undergoing training.

He said: „The collecting of samples is a legal obligation in all wine-producing Member States as part of an EU-wide requirement to monitor quality and grape varieties in order to sustain the industry’s deserved international reputation.“

But he refused to divulge how much the exercise had cost, saying: „We do not comment on the cost of these things. Obviously those involved would claim back their expenses just like anyone working for a company.“

„Clearly they will be scrutinised as always in such matters.“

Source: dailymail.co.uk