The ‘wine with the stick’ and the stone in the pond
Excellent evidence of the effectiveness of Italy’s system of official public controls yesterday in Bologna. Operation ‘Hydrias,’ conducted by the Guardia di Finanza under the direction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, promptly foiled the fraud of a large agricultural company that aimed to produce low-quality wines using sugar instead of grape must. The matter was resolved in a few hours, with only one problem. You cannot throw the stone into the pond and hide your hand, as you risk damaging an honest and respectful production system.
On the morning of June 18, the agency was notified of a search at ‘a major Bologna winery and at the homes of the company’s managers, who are under investigation for trade fraud. The investigation uncovered a fraudulent scheme to sell in large quantities table wines and musts made from raw materials used for adulteration.’ No danger to public health, just the trivial case of a clique of smart-asses who wanted to make ‘nuptials with dried figs,’ or rather wine with water and sugar, which does not produce syrup but raises the alcohol content by fermentation. What used to be called ‘wine with a stick,’ to mock some dishonest ‘vintners,’ and which, moreover, is an accepted practice in other countries such as France.
In fact, Italy is one of the few countries in the world-along with Greece, Spain and Portugal-where wine must be made from grape must alone, with strict prohibition to the practice of so-called ‘sugaring.’ And controls on the supply chain are so stringent that they immediately foiled the malfeasance of those who tried to make wine ‘the French way,’ that is, using sugars of different origins such as beet and cane sugars. In this particular case, investigators – intercepting trucks unloading ‘large quantities of sugar of unknown origin’ at night – traced them to a historic wine production facility and seized goods worth more than 30 million euros.
However, the efficiency of the investigative apparatus has unfortunately not been matched by the completeness of information. With the result that the scandal of a colossal fraud on wines produced by a large winery in Emilia Romagna, without disclosing the identities of those responsible, spread in a flash to five continents. Causing serious damage to the reputation of one of Italy’s premier ‘food valleys’ and its honest representatives, who have been the victims of countless requests for reassurance in international markets.
And only several hours after the opening of a global crisis to the detriment of the Emilia wine industry, the names of the suspects were released, the two owners and proprietors of Cantine Brusa in Dozza, Bologna. Two considerations:
1) public authorities cannot manage the reporting of their admittedly brilliant operations in this way. When the news is triggered, it is imperative to immediately confine it to the individual company, which will assume its responsibilities in the appropriate venues. Otherwise, unnecessary and inappropriate harm is caused to the supply chain and production system, even to the country-system,
2) the Associations representing the industry and the territory, in synergy with the authorities, must, as soon as possible, isolate those responsible and do what they can to safeguard the workers, and the grape conferring, to turn over a new leaf and restore the order necessary for the restoration of shared activities, under the banner of legality and with as little damage as possible to the social partners concerned.
(Dario Dongo)
