Between April 3rd and 7th, Vinitaly has seen 150 000 visitors, who arrived in Verona just in time to hear that 70 million liters of a mixture of grape juice (1/3) and water, sugar and hydrochloric acid (2/3) were sold as Italian low price wine throughout the country. The story rings a bell with another poisonned wine tragedy that lead 19 people to die and 15 to lose their sight in 1986.
Later the same day, Italian press revealed that tenths thousands of bottles of Brunello di Montalcino had been confiscated in the cellars of a dozen of Montalcino producers who are standing accused of illegally blending their Brunello with Merlot or Southern Italian grapes (Brunello di Montalcino is expected to be 100 % Sangiovese).
Despite these sad news, the Italy of Wine was determined to show a smiling face, with the Brunello incident indicating that controls are effective and wine being the first exported good of the peninsula, bringing in 3,5 billion euros to he country in 2007, exports rising by 7,8 %, with the average price of a bottle up by 6,4 %. For the last 10 years, France has lost close to 6 points of its percentage of marketshare on the global wine market, while Italy maintained its 18 % against the competition of the New World.