International inquiry underway on fake Italian wines

(AGI) Siena, Jan 21 - Two hundred bottles of fake Brunello di Montalcino wine and 250 bottles of fake Amarone della Valpolicella wine were seized last November by Italian authorities in a Danish chef's storage room in Copenhagen. This is the report that emerged from an inquiry headed up by Deputy Prosecutor of Siena Aldo Natalini, who is working in collaboration with Danish magistrates. It is suspected that the wine contained in the bottles might have originated in Spain, but this will be confirmed once samples have been chemically tested. The inquiry had begun in 2014, when a Danish citizen contacted the wine producer after buying some bottles of Brunello and expressed his suspicions regarding the wine, which had been bought for around one third of its usual price. These suspicions were confirmed by the company itself, leading to a further investigation. Some samples of the wine were confiscated, sent to the Italian Agricultural Policy Ministry's Central Inspectorate for quality protection and fraud repression, and were analysed to check whether the counterfeit wine complied with production and provenance guidelines or not. The results are expected to be released in early February. The only person being investigated for the moment is the Danish chef, for possible fraudulent trading and selling of industrial products. According to sources, the labels were also counterfeit and photocopied with the same serial number. No Italians are involved in the counterfeit activity, but Italian and Danish authorities (procedures have been transferred to Denmark) are also exploring the possible involvement of a German businessman and the head of the Spanish company from which the Danish chef had bought the counterfeit wine. (AGI).
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