Jan 28: The Carabinieri police and finance fraud police unearthed a scam of fake wine amounting to over 1 million litres and arrested last week five people including the Chairman of a wine co-operative and a senior person of Italy’s Winemaker Association for allegedly counterfeiting Oltrepò Pavese DOC and DOP wines, writes Subhash Arora
Italian police arrested five people last Wednesday in a probe into allegedly counterfeit Oltrepò Pavese DOC wine in the Oltrepò Pavese area in the province of Pavia and five regions in Italy. The investigation, led by Pavia prosecutors is the latest in a string of fake wine scandals.
According to investigators as reported by Gazetta del Mezzogiorno in Pavia, Lombardy, those arrested sold as DOC and IGT wines of inferior quality, produced with grapes that were not certified as organic, or with the addition of aromas or carbon dioxide. Premises were searched in Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Trentino Alto Adige. The probes were conducted by Carabinieri and tax fraud police.
Those arrested were caught in a raid in the morning at 28 homes and work places. According to Meininger’s Wine Business International, a wine co-operative in Oltrepò Pavese and several winemakers had colluded using large quantities of sugar, additives and unauthorised grapes to make fake Oltrepò Pavese DOC (PDO) and PGI wines. They were found using mixtures of sugar cane and beet roots to activate alcoholic fermentation of must and using dyes and other chemical substances to deceive even the electronic instruments used in the wine sector, in connivance with an inspector of ICQRF, the central Inspectorate of fraud connected with the Ministry of Agricultural Policy.
Alberto Carini, chairman of the wine co-operative, Cantina Sociale di Canneto Pavese in Oltrepò Pavese and Aldo Venco, Vice-Chairman of the Lombardia-Liguria regional branch of Assoenologi, Italy’s winemakers association, were among those arrested, according to reports by several Italian newspapers.
In a statement, the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s tax fraud police said that their complex investigation lasted for over a year, enabling them to discover how the top management of the Cantina Canneto together with entrusted winemakers counterfeited DOC and DOP wines in terms of quality, quantity and origin and blended with the wines of appellation. Around a million liter of the fake wines were seized. Falsified records of invoices and the harvest declaration of the 2018 vintage were also confiscated. They even used flavourings to duplicate the aromas of the genuine Oltrepò Pavese DOC and PGI wines. Some were even falsely labelled as organic wines.
The arrests were made only a few months after Italian police, reportedly seized 10 million litres of alleged fake wine in Lecce in Southern Puglia region in the southern part of Italy at 4 wineries as reported by Scalate. The raid on several wine associations was linked to the arrests of 11 Italians.
There had been a raid earlier also in 2014 when about 200 Italians were involved, according to the report.
Oltrepò Pavese DOC wines are made in the province of Pavia, about 45 kms South of Milan in Lombardy region of North-western Italy. It makes sparkling, red, white and rose wines. Established as a DOC in 1970; Oltrepò Pavese Metodo Classico became a DOCG in 2007; Oltrepò Pavese Pinot Grigio and Bonarda, Buttafuoco, Pinot Nero, and Sangue di Giuda dell ’Oltrepò Pavese were established as separate DOCs in 2010.
Subhash Arora
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