|
Over 700 artisan wine producers and enologists from 16 European countries gathered last week in the Tuscan spa town of Montecatini Terme in a 3-day meet of Vignerons d'Europe to compare ideas and experiences to face several challenges, were perhaps oblivious to the undergoing investigations going on in the host region.
According to reports published last Thursday by local Italian media, the Italian treasury department and the agriculture ministry are investigating some proportion of the current-release wine that may have been made using blending wines of inferior quality not allowed by appellation regulations.
These include wines from Chianti DOCG, Toscana IGT, Brunello di Montalcino, and Rosso di Montalcino, according to a news report by Decanter.
The Siena edition of the Italian national daily La Nazione and the Florentine edition of the Corriere della Sera (both Tuscan dailies) are believed to have reported last Thursday that 17 people and 42 companies are currently under investigation for falsifying public documents with the intent to commit fraud.
While the investigation has focused primarily on Tuscany, producers in the regions of Abruzzo, Trentino, Piemonte, Lombardy, and Emilia-Romagna are also suspected of having played a role in the adulteration of Tuscan wines.
It was as recent as last summer that the American authorities had impounded 2003 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino when an investigation was launched into the addition of non-permitted varieties to the wines. |