In scenes described as Dallas-sur-Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Guy Arnaud and his daughter, Carole, have been fighting tooth and nail over an ancestral estate north of Avignon encompassing two prized wine domains.
The father-daughter battle, which has been raging for a year and a half, has appalled the reserved local winemaking community.
The feud began when Mr Arnaud, who owns one of the region’s largest vineyards, spread over the chateaux of Cabrières and Maucoil, decided to share out some of his land between his three daughters and their husbands while still alive.
Each daughter was due to get 17 hectares (42 acres) of vineyards, estimated to be worth up to €500,000 (£440,000) per hectare.
Two of the daughters were happy with the arrangement. But the third, Carole Perveyrie-Arnaud, decided the inheritance process was taking too long and that she wanted immediate access to her share to be able to cultivate it.
She then contacted the authorities, claiming that her father was violating appellation rules by buying wine from outside the area and putting the Châteauneuf-du-Pape label on the bottles.
The father “totally refuted” the fraud allegation.
“Carole Arnaud has made some very grave claims. She denounced her own parents, she claimed they doctored their barrels,” said Mr Arnaud’s lawyer.
No foul play was detected, however, and a few months later, the entire family met to try to resolve the feud – drawing up a new contract.
This time Mrs Perveyrie-Arnaud was ceded the immediate rights to vineyards worth €3.5?million. However, shortly afterwards, she decided this too was not sufficient.
“It’s the equivalent of eight hectares [20 acres] of Châteauneuf, while the family domain covers 51 hectares. She could have staked a claim for a lot more,” a well-informed source told Le Parisien newspaper.
“She realised after signing the deal that she was the loser, that she had given up [rights] to lots of things, particularly as the family estate also contains buildings.”
In their latest legal dispute, Mrs Perveyrie-Arnaud and her husband sued Mr Arnaud last week for failing to pay €22,000 in wages while they worked on the father’s land, and are threatening more action. A worker’s tribunal is due to announce a verdict on Feb 24.
Locals hope this latest legal round will be the last. One said that the bad press “splashes on everyone, even if the affair only concerns one family”.
“Will they ever stop p------ us off with all their millions?” he asked.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape —translated as “New Castle of the Pope — is one of France’s most celebrated wines and dates back to the Avignon papacy of the 14th century.
