He made false champagne from Spain and Ardèche wines, aromas and carbon dioxide that sold at the price of 8.50 euros per bottle. An Aisne winemaker was sentenced to four years in prison, including 18 months closed on Tuesday, September 2 by the Reims Criminal Court. The judge even went beyond the requests of the Prosecutor’s Office, which claimed four years in prison, including a farm.
Didier Chopin, 56, processed in particular by fraud, the usurpation of the designation of origin and the abuse of corporate goods was also sentenced to a final prohibition for administering a company. His wife, judged at his side, was sentenced to two years in suspended prison sentence and the same prohibition.
“A logic of cynical and premeditated gains”
The fraud, which took place between 2022 and 2023, would have focused on hundreds of thousands of bottles, for damages estimated at several million euros. The winemaker’s holder counted one hundred brands in addition to those marketed under the name of “Champagne Didier Chopin”, had assured the lawyer of the Champagne committee, I will give me Valbray during the trial, citing, for example, the STESSON brand sold in the Netherlands.
The case had exploded in the summer of 2023 after the reports of the manager of a secondary winemaker production site in Aisne. The prosecutor denounced “a logic of cynical and premeditated profits.” “It is a sad conclusion. I made a mistake, I am ruined and I have nothing more to add,” Didier Chopin reacted at the end of his test, during which he tried to minimize the volumes of false champagne products.
Other cases
The customs component of the case, with respect to the exports of its false champagne, was postponed until February 3, 2026.
The businessman also faces another legal procedure for accusations of sexual violence presented by several of his former employees, five of whom filed a complaint. He was also imprisoned for several months in Morocco in 2024 for an unknown verification box, while trying to recover in this country by launching a fruit and vegetable production company and investing in a restaurant.
Source: BFM TV
