Just before the WineFuture Rioja conference last November, rumours surfaced that its chief protagonist and energetic conference organiser Pancho Campo MW was on some Interpol list of wanted criminals. This highly embarrassing allegation apparently stemmed from his time in business in Dubai, before he moved with his family to Marbella, started up the Spanish Wine Academy and began the long (actually not so long in his case – see Seven new Masters of Wine) haul to become Spain's first Master of Wine.
I am delighted to say that Pancho contacted me yesterday to say that Interpol have now taken his name off their list and 'found that a mistake was made and an injustice was committed against me. Finally my name is out of their website and I am no longer a "wanted" person.'
This is good news, and comes not a moment too soon. It must have been pretty awful, not to say time- and euro-consuming, fighting Interpol on this issue.
Presumably this means that Pancho can now turn his attention to the detailed organisation of the WineFuture event he is planning for early November 2011 in Hong Kong. Pancho Campo is one of the more energetic, and potentially abrasive, characters to emerge recently on the international wine scene and has garnered a reputation for involving high-profile names such as Al Gore and Robert Parker in his events. So who will he line up for his first venture in Asia? I suggest those manga (Drops of God) creators for a start.