US Postpones Brunello Ban To June 23, 2008
Staff Writer - May 30, 2008
The US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) gave Italy two extra weeks to identify and release the list of labels of what is arguably the most noble among Italian wines which have been mislabeled, as juice from grapes different than Sangiovese Grosso, the only variety allowed to produce the famed Brunello di Montalcino DOCG was added.
As we mentioned earlier this month, in April 2008, Italian authorities seized thousands of bottles of 2003 Brunello di Montalcino because of the suspected fraud and are looking into the following vintages as well. The TTB wrote to the Italian embassy in Washington asking for the lists of the producers, labels and vintages involved in the enquiry, when the Italian embassy failed to comply, the US agency threatened to bar all shipments of Brunello di Montalcino starting June 9, "unless the wine is accompanied by laboratory analysis proving that the wine is [made with] pure Sangiovese," as the president of the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino (Consortium of the Brunello di Montalcino Wine), Francesco Marone Cinzano, said.
"They now have until June 23 before we will block shipments," said TTB spokesman, Art Resnick, on Thursday, May 29, 2008.
Lars Leicht, an executive at the Banfi estate, one of Italy's largest producers of Brunello di Montalcino, as well as one of the largest US importers of the varietal, said that roughly 20,000 cases of the 2003 vintage, which represent about half the yearly production for this expensive, upscale wine, is being held by Italian authorities and kept under optimal conditions at the wineries which are currently under investigation.
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