One of Italy’s biggest fraudulent wine rings has been smashed by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Services.

The scandal, dubbed the ‘Maxi Truffa’ or Mega Swindle, involved four regions spanning the length of the country and has so far seen the arrests of seven people as well as the confiscation of thousands of hectolitres of wine.

Documents found at the time led police to Sicily where several days ago 24,000 hl of common white table wine was sequestered. According to transportation documents and invoices found at an undisclosed company near Palermo, the wine was headed for establishments in Lombardy, Emilia and Veneto to be sold as Pinot Grigio delle Venezie IGT. Wines under the IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) denomination must guarantee the wine’s origin.

According to the minister of agriculture, Gianni Alemanno, the production of

denomination-controlled wine must be monitored constantly.

‘Repression of any type of falsification is necessary in order to safeguard

the quality of our products and to guarantee that what is declared on the

label is what the consumer will find in the bottle,’ he said.

The names of the companies involved as well as those people arrested have

not been released.

12 people were accused last November for producing fraudulent Sassicaia, the super Tuscan wine, in 2000.

Written by Kerin O’Keefe

Kerin O'Keefe
Kerin O'Keefe
Decanter Magazine, Wine Writer & Italian Expert

Kerin O’Keefe is a wine writer, critic and public speaker, specialising in Italian wine. She is the Italian editor for Wine Enthusiast magazine and has also appeared in Decanter, Wine News and World of Fine Wine. As an author, she has written Franco Biondi Santi: The Gentleman of Brunello, Brunello di Montalcino: Understanding and Appreciating One of Italy's Greatest Wines. Most recently, she wrote Barolo and Barbaresco: The King and Queen of Italian Wine (2014).