Biondi Santi, Col d'Orcia cleared of Brunello adulteration
July 31, 2009
By David Furer
Italian police have closed their investigation into the alleged adulteration of Brunello di Montalcino.
The investigation followed Siena public prosecutor Nino Calabrese's 2008 accusation that several Montalcino wineries had used grapes other than Sangiovese in their Brunellos di Montalcino and Rossos di Montalcino.
This would have been a violation of strict appellation rules.
In the spring of 2008 Calabrese confiscated 6.5m litres of Brunello di Montalcino and 700,000 litres of Rosso di Montalcino from producers including Antinori, Frescobaldi, Argiano and Castello Banfi.
Biondi Santi and Col d'Orcia, who were also involved in the original investigation, were fully cleared of any wrongdoing.
The wines were subjected to laboratory tests conducted by a government agricultural office in Florence.
Police have not given specific test results but say that 1.3m litres of Brunello and 680,000 litres of Rosso, Chianti Classico and other reds were compulsorily declassified to the less strict Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) category, while 100,000 liters of the non-Brunello wines were ordered to be distilled.
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Apart from Col d'Orcia and Biondi Santi being cleared, Italian
newspaper La Repubblica disclosed that 5 other wineries have been
found guilty by the investigators, and the paper named names:
Antinori, Argiano, Banfi, Casanova di Neri and Marchesi de'
Frescobaldi. And the Guarda di Finanza overtly blamed the Consorzio
for not alerting the state and allowing false brunellos to go on the
market. So investigation may be closed, but not the case! Now a judge
will have to examine the evidence gathered by the investigators.
Hervé Lalau, Belgium
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