Anche il giornale inglese wine business, news and informations for wine industry professionals, (www.winebusiness.com) si è occupato della vicenda che ci oppone al Gambero Rosso, con un articolo che ironizza sull'esagerata supponenza di questa holding. Nell'articolo si cita la sproporzione tra le richieste avanzate dal Gambero e le richieste dei viticoltori del Beaujolais nei riguardi della vicenda del "vin de merde" pubblicata dal Lyon magazine. Comunque, ecco il testo dell'articolo:

"Gambero Rosso Sees Red"

When Guelfo Magrini posted a short satirical piece about Gambero Rosso, Italy's best known wine guide, and their Tre Bicchieri awards on his Tapiro Briaco (drunken tapir) section of his website (www.nettaridibacco.it) in June 2004, he could not have imagined that soon he would be facing a libel action for close to $800,000. His 239-word satirical piece poked sharp fun at the Tre Trebicchieri awards, called in the piece "trebicchieri"suggesting that international style wines tended to be favored in the three glass awards rather than "sound/pure, true and alive"wines. Magrini then alleges that the way to succeed is to appoint the right oenologist, make wines from fashionable international grape varieties and forge links with Gambero Rosso, "flatter in a disgusting manner all improbable "tasters and journalists' who present themselves under the Gambero label."Magrini's site has 6,000 free subscribers and apparently has just 12,000 visitors a year.

The Gambero Rosso phenomenon now includes wine, food and travel magazines, wine and restaurant guides, a website, a TV channel and a Città del Gusto (City of Taste) on the Via Enrico Fermi, Rome with wine and food classes, restaurants and wine bars. Their website has 6,000 visitors a day. Gambero Rosso started in mid-December 1986 as an eight-page monthly food and wine supplement in Il Manifesto, the daily left-wing paper. The following year the first edition of Vini d'Italia with the Tre Bicchieri awards was published.

On October 1, Magrini received a libel summons from Gambero Rosso Holdings based in Rome claiming over $600,000 in damages. On October 4 he decided to remove the trebicchieri piece from his website. Magrini has told Wine Business Insider that he is basing his defence on "the rights of satire."On March 21 Gambero Rosso increased their claim for damages by $181,897 to $788,247, alleging that Magrini had failed to remove the offending article from his website. "This is a very big falsehood,"Magrini told Wine Business Insider. The case is due in court in November.

Gambero Rosso is also involved in another libel action against another journalist, Sandro Sangiorgi, a long-standing contributor who had resigned as a Gambero Rosso wine judge. On September 24, 2004, Sangiorgi appeared on Italian TV in a programme called In Vino Veritas. He alleged that a wine that he had judged not worthy of an award in Gambero Rosso had been promoted to an award because advertizing space had been bought in the magazines. Daniele Cernilli, co-director of Gambero Rosso, also appeared on the program. Cernilli strongly denied Sangiorgi's claims and threatened to sue.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of these cases, one has to wonder whether it is wise of Gambero Rosso, especially in the case of Guelfo Magrini, to take legal action and claim such large damages for an article that appeared on a little-known website. Gambero Rosso's recourse to the courts will surely bring the satirical article on Tapiro Briaco to a far wider audience in Italy and elsewhere. It may have the same effect as the Beaujolais producers achieved by taking LyonMag to court in 2002 over the Beaujolais vin de merde article."