|
Manos Angelakis
Brunello Update
A political battle over the regulation of controls exercised by the Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino, Italy’s most prestigious and one of the world’s most famous wines, has blocked the shipment of hundreds of thousands of bottles of the 2003 vintage and effectively holds the region’s leading producers hostage to the whims of political judicial appointees. Authorities are scanning thousands of documents, including winemaker notes, harvest and bottling records, consorzio registrations, and DOCG stamps.
Rumors and speculations abound, but in short, Italy's financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, under the direction of Siena's public prosecutor, Nino Calabrese, have impounded current stocks of Brunello di Montalcino 2003 at a number of wineries, on suspicion that the wines might contain grapes other than Sangiovese. Furthermore, the block applies to all subsequent vintages still aging in barrel or bottle in the cellars of the affected producers.
In a recent press release, the consortium said that a three-year-long investigation of the vineyards, from 2004 to 2007, uncovered 42 acres that did not strictly conform to DOCG rules — around 1 percent out of the 4,118 total acres of Brunello vineyards. That spurred the Guardia di Finanza to launch an exhaustive examination of all documents relating to Brunello production at the estates involved, sequestering the wines.
So far, the public prosecutor's office has refused comment except for a brief press release, issued on March 28, stating categorically that the police were not investigating the possibility that Brunello wines from 2003 onwards included grapes from Puglia; one of many rumors that was gaining ground in local press coverage.
A representative for Castello Banfi denied that their 2003 Brunellos — about 35,000 cases — had been impounded because of vines other than Sangiovese in their vineyards. Instead, he said the problem was supposed irregularities in vineyard yields. He also questioned the timing of the investigation appearing in the press, just as wineries are meeting with potential customers from around the world at Vinitaly, Italy's most important wine fair.
This matter is looked upon very seriously by Italian gastronomic circles. It is deemed so serious, that other wine producing regions are issuing official pronouncements declaring the purity of their products.
We received the following official communication from the Friuli Venezia Giulia region:
Wine and mozzarella alarm:
a scandal which does not concern Friuli Venezia Giulia
The news, released not by chance during Vinitaly, concerning circumscribed episodes of supposed adulterations of the Italian wine, do not concern the production and producers of Friuli Venezia Giulia in any way. An episode, which was discovered thanks to the control of the authorities in charge, of wine adulteration for a total volume of 70 million litres of wine sold at a price below any reasonable level, concerns two well-defined Italian regions. Another episode, which cannot be defined as adulteration but as the non-compliance to the rules of one of the most famous Italian Docg (Denomination of controlled and guaranteed origin) labels, is limited to a well-defined production area and does not involve Friuli Venezia Giulia at all. The producers of Friuli Venezia Giulia are proud of the quality of their wines – which are regularly and constantly controlled – and assure that there are no episodes of any kind which concern their production. The same guarantees can be applied to the dairy products of Friuli Venezia Giulia – this region can boast an excellent production which includes the classic Montasio cheese and other traditional cheeses, but also a production chain of high-quality buffalo mozzarella, which uses the milk of heads of cattle which are bred exclusively in the region – which are not at all concerned by these investigations, which are limited to only one Italian region.
To your health!
© April 2008 The Oenophile Blog. All rights reserved.
|
