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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
U.S. hypocrisy on full display in threat to block Brunello imports
The U.S. has threatened to block imports of all Brunello di Montalcino starting June 9 unless each shipment is accompanied by laboratory analysis certifying that the wine is “pure Sangiovese,” according to Decanter.com.
The U.S. is Brunello’s biggest market, importing 25% of total Brunello production, so the threat in a letter from the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has Brunello producers scrambling to arrange for lab tests to keep the Brunello pipeline flowing.
The Decanter story notes that, “Since Brunello must by law be 100% Sangiovese, adding other grapes would be a violation of a strict labelling convention between the U.S. and the EU that stipulates that what is on the label must guarantee what is in the bottle.”
I’m all for taking steps to ensure wine purity, but this smacks of selective enforcement, if not downright hypocrisy. Sounds like some government bureaucrat got frustrated that his office’s initial letters and threats were ignored, so he chose to rattle the saber a bit.
My question: How strictly are government authorities enforcing all of the other wine “purity” rules right here at home — the regulations regarding the mixing of wines from different appellations, and even from different vintages?
My thoughts go back to a conversation I had with David Phillips, co-owner of Michael David, the Lodi, California winery that I wrote about yesterday. With a twinkle in his eye, Phillips told me how, during harvest, the semi trucks would line up along the main highway between Lodi and Napa, be loaded to the brim with bargain-priced Lodi grapes, and head 90 miles to the west. Napa wineries are allowed to blend a percentage of grapes from outside the region — I believe it’s 15 percent — and still, perfectly legally, claim the “Napa” appellation. And Lodi was more than happy to oblige.
Now, I wonder how many “bargain” Napa producers pay razor-sharp attention to ensure they don’t exceed that allowable proportion of outside grapes? And I wonder how robustly our government monitors and enforces those rules?
What do you suppose might happen if some government agency demanded a freeze on sales and a laboratory analysis of every bottle that carried the Napa and Sonoma appellation on its label to ensure “purity?” How long do you think THAT bureaucrat would keep his job?
Consumers will be watching the Italian prosecutor’s probe into Brunello and in the end, I suspect the marketplace will decide this brouhaha more than courts and bureaucrats will.
Until then, the U.S. would do well to avoid engaging in saber-rattling and selective enforcement.
Mark Fisher
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