FLORENCE, ITALY – The Italian Police confiscate 30,000 bottles of fake Brunello, Chianti. The low-quality wine was destined for sale at 10 times its real value.
Police on Thursday seized the bottles of fake Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti and other fine wines in an anti-fraud operation across several regions in central and northern Italy.
The sweep involved dozens of searches in wineries, bottling plants, supermarkets and wine shops in Tuscany, Umbria, Lazio and Liguria. Unbottled wine and false quality certificates were also sequestered in the operation.
The fraudulent wine, of low quality, was destined for sale on the national and international market at ten times its real value, with an estimated loss to the Italian wine industry running to hundreds of thousands of euros.
Producers of Brunello and companies operating in the Montalcino wine area of Tuscany are not implicated in the probe.
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