{"id":626842,"date":"2026-08-08T09:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/626842\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:37:14","slug":"drinks-distributor-drops-irish-wine-over-concern-about-accuracy-of-label-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/626842\/","title":{"rendered":"Drinks distributor drops \u2018Irish\u2019 wine over concern about accuracy of label \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the largest wine<\/a> distributors in the country<\/a> has stopped supplying wine from a Louth<\/a>-based vineyard over concerns about the accuracy of it being labelled as an \u201cIrish\u201d wine.<\/p>\n

Neil Cassidy, managing director of Cassidy Wines, told The Irish Times it dropped Fairy Trees wines after a campaign that questioned the bona fides of those selling the wine as Irish.<\/p>\n

A number of small Irish wine producers have challenged individual off-licences and chains, as well as Cassidy Wines, for stocking Fairy Trees red and white wines, which are labelled as \u201cproduced in Ireland\u201d. Suspicions were raised because of the volume of bottles available, and its cheap price made other growers believe a significant proportion of the wine was French.<\/p>\n

Based on eight hectares across two sites near Dunleer in Co Louth, Fairy Trees Winery is owned by Bertrand Lacile, who is originally from France and who is also involved in running a distillery business in Co Louth. Lacile told The Irish Times this week that 25 per cent of his blended wines are from French grapes, with 75 per cent Irish. He bought the site in 2020 and said he began growing vines in 2021.<\/p>\n

A number of off-licences sell B\u00e1n and Dearg, the names of Fairy Trees\u2019 white and red wines, and describe them as \u201cIrish wines\u201d on their websites, including the Dublin Airport duty free site.<\/p>\n

\"WinesWines made by Fairy Trees Winery in Co Louth. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

One Irish wine producer said tourists and Irish people were buying bottles of Fairy Trees wine in the belief that it was all Irish grown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was Irish beef being sold at the airport like this but it was actually Brazilian there would be protests and blockades,\u201d said one Irish producer, who asked not to be named.<\/p>\n

Neil Cassidy said his company \u201creluctantly\u201d dropped Fairy Trees wines as he was impressed with the vineyard and the end product. He said Lacile had not done anything illegal but he thought it could be \u201cbetter labelled\u201d as containing Irish and non-Irish grapes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took it on good faith,\u201d said Cassidy. \u201cIt was dropped because of a failure to be forthright on labelling.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inside the Irish vineyard facing questions over how much of its wine is from Irish grapesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Using the Internet Archive<\/a>, it is possible to see how the description of the wine sold by Fairy Trees on its website evolved over the past year. At no time was it stated that a quarter of its wine was French.<\/p>\n

In August 2025 the site stated: \u201cOur wines are produced from grapes grown in the East of Ireland.\u201d In November 2025 it stated: \u201cOur wines are crafted from grapes grown on Ireland\u2019s East Coast\u201d.<\/p>\n

The site currently states that \u201cour wines are crafted and produced in Ireland\u201d. It also states: \u201cAs we continue to develop and expand our vineyards, we also work with carefully selected fruit that meets our exacting standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenged that consumers could not know that \u201ccarefully selected fruit\u201d meant that French wine is added to the Irish product, Lacile said: \u201cI feel like I am in a courtroom here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was speaking to The Irish Times after giving a tour of his vineyard where grapes are growing ahead of harvest next month. He said the wine was made in Ireland and sent to France for bottling.<\/p>\n

\"BertrandBertrand Laclie and his dog Whiskey: ‘It\u2019s a blank page. When I ask questions to anybody, Irish Department of Agriculture or anybody, nobody knows.’ Photograph: Chris Maddaloni <\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we made a mistake,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong. It\u2019s a new industry. It\u2019s a blank page. We are right in the blank page. And when I ask questions to anybody, Irish Department of Agriculture or anybody, nobody knows. Nobody can give us answers, so we\u2019re trying to make our own rules, and we\u2019re trying also to adapt ourselves to the market. Honestly, if tomorrow there is no future here, at least we tried.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Irish whiskey is made with French corn. It doesn\u2019t say on the back label. It\u2019s aged in a bourbon barrel which comes from America. The only thing Irish in Irish whiskey is the water<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Bertrand Lacile<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lacile said that before his winery, Irish wine was \u201cbad\u201d and expensive. He said some Irish wineries were charging up to \u20ac80 a bottle. His wine retails at between \u20ac15 and \u20ac20, and has won international awards.<\/p>\n

He said it would be a shame if his winery had to strip out its vines and that would undermine the chances of Ireland creating a wine industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t show anybody that in fact an Irish winery can be successful, nobody \u2013 I mean, nobody \u2013 will say, \u2018Well, yeah, let\u2019s plant some grapes in Ireland. Let\u2019s try.\u2019 Because so far it was a failure, pure failure. And Dublin Airport, why did it not take Irish wine before? Because what was tried before was bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

He put the winery up for sale in late May because of what he said was a campaign against him that included complaints to Louth County Council and the HSE. Lacile questioned if he was being targeted because he was French.<\/p>\n

He said he has been defamed by those who campaigned against him online and those who made complaints to the authorities. He is planning to take legal action.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018We\u2019re aiming for 90,000 bottles by 2029\u2019: Meet the Dutchman betting \u20ac4m on Slane vineyardOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He wanted to sell the winery because he was \u201csick\u201d of the complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t take it any more,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just seems like it\u2019s permanent. When is it going to stop? We\u2019re only trying to do something. Maybe sometimes you don\u2019t do it right. I don\u2019t even do that for the money. I don\u2019t get any f***ing salary. I invested more than \u20ac1 million. It\u2019s not for the fame. It\u2019s because I believe in it. I believe there is a future for Irish wine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GrapesGrapes in the vineyards at Fairy Trees Winery in Co Louth. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni <\/p>\n

Lacile questioned why his product was challenged on its geographic labelling when others were not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIrish whiskey \u2013 it\u2019s made with French corn,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t say on the back label. It\u2019s aged in a bourbon barrel which comes from America. The only thing Irish in Irish whiskey is the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fairy Trees Winery and Distillery Ltd reported accumulated losses of \u20ac155,304 at the end of 2024. Its holding company, Vinea Ventures, had capital and reserves of \u20ac721,325. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the largest wine distributors in the country has stopped supplying wine from a Louth-based vineyard over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[5051,79,15778,18,19,17,23664,8297],"class_list":["post-626842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alcohol","tag-business","tag-department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-louth","tag-wine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117059220168927831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}