Nobile di Montepulciano Appellation Caught Tuscan Wine Scandal
Staff Writer - June 11, 2008
After the noble Brunello di Montalcino DOCG wines, the nearby appellation, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOC, is now under investigation by the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian financial police agency, as some producers are suspected to have used grapes from regions other than Tuscany. The Italian government is appointing a 'Committee of Guarantee' to oversee production in Montalcino temporarily.
Aerial view of Montepulciano
The Brunello soap opera continues in Montalcino, and the latest twist in the plot is the resignation of the president of the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino (Consortium of the Brunello di Montalcino Wine), Francesco Marone Cinzano, who arrived the day after the Italian Agriculture Minister, Luca Zaia, announced the plan to strip the Consorzio of its authority to oversee production quality for the time being. Minister Zaia rejected the proposal of the Consorzio to police itself, and instead installed his own panel, appointing three outside wine experts as members of the 'Committee of Guarantee' which will "safeguard Brunello's image and guarantee the integrity of the product to consumers worldwide." Zaia hopes to avoid the US-threatened embargo on Brunello imports, and in fact he met with representatives of the US Alcohol and Tobacco and Trade Bureau (TTB) to that end.
At this time it's unclear whether the TTB will accept Zaia's plan and continue to allow Brunello to be imported into the US after June 23, the agency's deadline for imposing import limitations.
Ageing cellars at
Vecchia Cantina di Montepulciano
In the meantime the Italian financial police have impounded various wines from a large producer's facility, the Vecchia Cantina di Montepulciano, one of the largest estates producing Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOC, while investigating whether bottles and barrels labeled as such in reality contain wine illegally blended with grape juice from outside the region. According to the disciplinare, or production rules, for the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, the wines must be made with 70% Sangiovese and varying percentages of other grapes, all of them grown within the Montepulciano DOC appellation area.
Tuesday, May 10, 2008, various producers in Montepulciano received a visit from the Guardia di Finanza who reviewed the books, looking for possible grapes which had been acquired from producers in other Italian regions were being used in their wines.
About a week earlier, the Italian media reported that as many as 13 million cases of wine produced by the Vecchia Cantina di Montepulciano had been sequestered and that the Gattavecchi winery, owned by the president of the Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Luca Gattavecchi, is under investigation as well. In interviews, Gattavecchi said that he had stepped aside voluntarily and temporarily while the investigation was going on.
Federico Carletti, owner of Poliziano, another producer of Nobile di Montepulciano wine, has taken over as president pro-tempore of the consortium. Carletti said that Poliziano was investigated and cleared by the authorities, and that it was important to cooperate with the investigation in order to clear the appellation's name.
As the investigations continue, it is likely that more producers will end up in trouble. More important, the quality control system for wine production currently used in Italy is now in jeopardy. In fact, the various wine consortiums campaigned hard before acquiring the right to oversee their members only four years ago, in 2004. Given the risk that the image of the Italian wine, whose export value is second only to fashion, could end up seriously damaged by the current scandal, the government may be forced to establish different control methods as the producers seem unable to police themselves.
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