A federal judge is allowing a Washington winemaker to proceed with allegations that a Colorado winery has raised claims of unsanitary practices to evade its contractual obligations.

Last year, a complaint filed by Carboy Winery of Littleton, Colo., alleged that it’d been supplied with “polluted” wine produced with unsanitary methods by Alexandria Nicole Cellars of Prosser, Wash.

According to the lawsuit, Carboy had contracted to buy grapes and bulk wine from ANC but became concerned that “turnover in key staff” had resulted in “messy and chaotic” operations.

The plaintiff claimed these problems led to excessive “volatile acidity” that imparted unpleasant flavors to wine, leading the company to conduct an investigation that revealed a “five-alarm fire” of unsanitary conditions at the defendant’s facility.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleged that a failure to sort grapes had cause dead animals to be processed into wine, while a lack of cleaning led to “tanks teeming with insects and signs of vermin,” among other accusations.

Counterclaim

Earlier this year, ANC filed counterclaims against Carboy, alleging that these allegations served as a “pretext” to avoid living up to its contractual commitment to buy wine and grapes due to economic reasons.

The defendant denied blocking Carboy’s access to “wine chemistry data” and refuted the claims of unsanitary practices, citing an unannounced inspection by state food safety officials that didn’t raise concerns about its methods.

In response, Carboy asked the judge to throw out those counterclaims, arguing that they were “peppered with paranoia and conspiratorial ideation.”

For example, the plaintiff said the claim it had paid former employees of ANC to assist in a “smear campaign” against the winemaker was “untethered from reality.”

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