20080406

Brunello di Montalcino production probed

Sometimes in business you can be too productive.

Think not? Check with the prominent Italian winemaker Castello Banfi. The Tuscan vintner has had 600,000 bottles of its 2003 Brunello di Montalcino confiscated by Italian authorities as part of an investigation into alleged irregularities in the quantity of bottles produced.

Enrico Viglierchio, a Castello Banfi executive, confirmed for reporters a story in the Tuscan newspaper Corriere Fiorentino that police had seized wine produced by Castello Banfi and three other vintners -- Antinori, Frescobaldi and Argiano -- on suspicion the high-end products had been cut with other grape varieties such as Sauvignon, which would be commercial fraud if true.

"It seems we produced more" than the vintner could have produced based on the calculation of acreage dedicated to grapes for Brunello, Viglierchio said in remarks carried by Italian state TV.

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