News » Consumer

Italian Wine Seized After Probe Finds Irregularities
July 8, 2010 Updated Jul 8, 2010 at 3:25 PM EDT

ROME (AP) - An executive for a prominent Tuscan wine producer
said authorities confiscated some 600,000 bottles of his company's
2003 Brunello di Montalcino, alleging too many bottles were
produced for it to be entirely authentic.
Enrico Viglierchio, an executive at Castello Banfi vintners,
told reporters at an international wine fair in Verona on Thursday
that magistrates based in Siena, Tuscany, were leading an
investigation into several winemakers.
Viglierchio was confirming a report in Tuscan newspaper Corriere
Fiorentino, which said police had seized wine produced by Castello
Banfi and three other vintners of well-known wine.
The paper said investigators suspect the Brunello might have
been cut with other grape varieties, such as Sauvignon grapes.
"It seems we produced more" than the vintner could have
produced based on the calculation of acreage dedicated to grapes
for Brunello, Viglierchio said in remarks carried by Italian state
TV.
The newspaper reported that Siena investigators believe
commercial fraud may have been committed. It reported that
investigators studied photographs of the vineyards and calculated
that the acreage dedicated to the production of Brunello could not
have yielded as many bottles as were produced without the wine
being likely "cut" with another variety of grape.
Italian news agency Apcom reported that hundreds of thousands of
bottles of 2003 Brunello di Montalcino from other winemakers were
also seized.
"I am upset by the methods used in this probe," the news
agency quoted Viglierchio as saying. "They acted on the basis of
clues and data which must be carefully checked out."
Italian news reports said authorities had also ordered the
seizure of some vineyards.
An Italian agricultural lobby group, Confagricoltura, urged the
magistrates to work quickly to reassure consumers and let vintners
go about their work.

To submit a comment on this article, your email address is required. We respect your privacy and your email will not be visible to others nor will it be added to any email lists.