Brunellopoli - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Brunellopoli is the name given by Italian press for a scandal involving producers of Brunello di Montalcino

Brunello di Montalcino

Brunello di Montalcino is a red Italian wine produced in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino located about 120 km south of Florence in the Tuscany wine region. Brunello, roughly translated as "small dark one" in the local dialect, is the unofficial name of the clone of Sangiovese...

under suspicion of wine fraud

Wine fraud

Wine fraud is a form of fraud in which wines are sold to a customer illicitly, usually having the customer spend more money than the product is worth, or causing sickness due to harmful chemicals being mixed into the wine...

, first reported by Italian wine journalist Franco Ziliani

Franco Ziliani

Franco Ziliani is an Italian journalist and wine critic, with a specialty in Italian wines since 1985. He has contributed to several periodicals including Decanter, A Tavola, Barolo & Co. and Merum, Il Corriere Vinicolo, De Vinis, The World of Fine Wine, as well as a column for Harpers Magazine...

and American wine critic James Suckling

James Suckling

James Suckling is an American wine and cigar critic and former Senior Editor and European Bureau Chief of Wine Spectator as well as European Editor of Cigar Aficionado...

of Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator is a lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertainment pieces...

. The name "Brunellopoli" bears reference to Tangentopoli

Tangentopoli

Tangentopoli is a term which was coined to describe pervasive corruption in the Italian political system exposed in the 1992-6 Mani Pulite investigations, as well as the resulting scandal, which led to the collapse of the hitherto dominant Christian Democracy party and its allies.-Popular distrust...

, or "Bribesville", the Italian political scandal of the 1990s, while some English language reporters have applied the name "Brunellogate".

Events

On March 21, 2008, Ziliani and Suckling reported that an investigation had begun into allegations that some Brunello producers had secretly and illegally added other types of grapes into what are by law wines made only from Sangiovese

Sangiovese

Sangiovese is a red Italian wine grape variety whose name derives from the Latin sanguis Jovis, "the blood of Jove"...

, allegedly to inflate production and increase profit on this typically expensive product.

The story received wider attention on April 4, 2008 when the Italian newsweekly L'espresso
L'Espresso
l'Espresso is an Italian newsmagazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies, the other being Panorama. Since the latter has been acquired by right-wing tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi, l'Espresso enjoys the reputation of being the main politically independent newsmagazine...

reported that 20 firms were suspected of commercial fraud after investigators alleged that possibly millions of liters of Brunello di Montalcino

Brunello di Montalcino

had been cut with grapes of other varieties in violation of the purity requirements of Brunello's commercial certification. Vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

s were quarantined and hundreds of thousands of bottles were seized by investigating magistrates. In addition, prominent producers such as Antinori, Frescobaldi

Frescobaldi

The Frescobaldi are a prominent Florentine noble family that have been involved in the political, sociological, and economic history of Tuscany since the Middle Ages;. Originating in the Val di Pesa in the Chianti, they appear holding important posts in Florence in the twelfth century...

, Argiano and Castello Banfi admitted that they were under investigation. While unlike earlier Italian scandals regarding tainted or fraudulent wine, there was no health risk feared, many observers suggested that great damage to the reputation of Brunello di Montalcino would result in lasting economic effects.

The prosecutor handling the case, Nino Calabrese, stated that the relevant commercial fraud charges carry a maximum sentences of up to six years in prison. In addition, any winemaker found guilty of violating the purity rules set down by Brunello's controlling body, the Consorzio del Vino Brunello, would probably mean expulsion from that group. The Consorzio has around 250 members, all of whom are bound to follow specific standards for winemaking, most importantly that only sangiovese

Sangiovese

Sangiovese is a red Italian wine grape variety whose name derives from the Latin sanguis Jovis, "the blood of Jove"...

grapes are used. Some have asserted that the alleged substitute grapes used to cut wine production by fraudulent winemakers were cheap grapes that probably came from vineyards in southern Italy.

It has also been asserted that the addition of other grapes may have been for the purpose of broadening the market appeal of Brunello, which has been described as possessing idiosyncratic, rarefied characteristics that sometimes result in a "hard to drink" wine, though Brunellos generally are much praised. (A Biondi Santi 1955 Brunello was the only wine from Italy selected as "best of the century" by a panel of experts in 1999).

Some winemakers, such Argiano, have moved to decertify all the bottles that have thus far been impounded by the prosecutor's office in an effort to allow them to bring them to market, albeit under a different name and at a significantly lower price, rather than wait an indefinite length of time for a court resolution. "Our decision isn't because we feel guilty," said a representative of Argiano. "We can't wait passively for months. We need to be on the market."

Some experts, such as wine critics Ziliani and Eric Asimov

Eric Asimov

Eric Asimov is an American wine critic for The New York Times, with articles subsequently published in the International Herald Tribune.-Biography:...

, have expressed skepticism about the level of surprise and shock thus far expressed by industry members, asserting that rumors have been around for years regarding illegal varietals used by some producers in Montalcino

Montalcino

Montalcino is a hilltown and comune in Tuscany, Italy. It is famous for its Brunello di Montalcino wine.The town is located to the west of Pienza, close to the Crete Senesi in Val d'Orcia. It is 42 km from Siena, 110 km from Florence and 150 km from Pisa...

.

In May, 2008, the U.S. government announced its intent to block imports of Brunello that do not come with laboratory proof that they are in fact 100% Sangiovese. A spokesman for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, statutorily named the Tax and Trade Bureau and frequently shortened to TTB, is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury....

stated that the United States took this step only after earlier requests for information from the Italian government met with an inadequate response.

In October 2008, the Consorzio of Brunello di Montalcino moved to sue the newspapers L'espresso and La Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...

for defamation in their reports of April 4, claiming that the articles had insinuated that Brunello is a health risk to consumers. Later that month, Brunello producers decided by vote to let the rules remain that Brunello di Montalcino be 100% Sangiovese, with only 4% of the producers voting to change the production code.

Events

See also