Winery Alleges Bribe Demands by Food 4 Less : Courts: Maker of Chateau Diana says managers asked for kickbacks. Grocery denies charge, says wine didn’t sell.

A Sonoma County vineyard that makes Chateau Diana wines has sued the Food 4 Less supermarket chain for $900,000, alleging that two of its managers demanded bribes in return for stocking more of its wine.

The supermarket chain replied Tuesday that the wine simply had not been selling very well and that the chain decided to drop it from its shelves.

A lawyer for the chain said that when Food 4 Less’ liquor buyer and his assistant informed the winery of its plan to discontinue sales, its president said: “I’m going to do all I can to make sure you guys lose your jobs.”

In the lawsuit filed Friday, Chateau Diana employee Dawn Manning alleges that she met in March with Food 4 Less liquor buyer Tom Thomas to discuss a “drastic” drop in sales to the supermarket chain.

At that meeting, she alleges, Thomas “demanded illegal payments in the form of kickbacks” before he would buy more wine. Manning said she refused to pay three weeks later.

About a month after that, in June, Chateau Diana President Tom Manning--Dawn Manning’s father--placed a call from the winery in the northern Sonoma County town of Healdsburg to Thomas Newcomer, who worked for liquor buyer Tom Thomas at the supermarket chain.

Newcomer, too, demanded a kickback, Tom Manning alleges in the lawsuit, and he refused to pay.

In July, Dawn Manning alleges, she met with Thomas Dahlen, senior vice president of marketing at Food 4 Less; Gregg Mays, executive vice president and chief financial officer; and John Graff, a district supervisor.

At that meeting, she said, she reported the alleged demands for kickbacks. The three did nothing, the lawsuit alleges.

Food 4 Less on Tuesday offered another version of events: The entire chain had been selling only a case of week of Chateau Diana and decided to drop the brand.

“It never sold very well,” said Food 4 Less General Counsel Robert Bermingham. “We even agreed to a promotion months ago, but it didn’t increase sales.”

The chain said its security department questioned everyone identified by the Mannings when they made the allegations and that management concluded there had been no extortion attempt.

Dawn Manning, who works out of the winery’s Orange County office, referred questions Tuesday to her lawyer, who was said to be out of town. Tom Manning could not be reached.

Food 4 Less, based in La Habra, is the second-largest supermarket chain in the Los Angeles region. It operates 250 stores in California and Kansas under the Alpha Beta, Food 4 Less, Boys, Viva and other names.