Police force to combat wine crime in Italy
Italy has raised a police force to combat production of fake wine in the country.
By PTI |
LONDON: Italy has raised a police force to combat production of fake wine in the country.
The members of the crack team of military police have recently qualified as professional sommeliers after completing an 18-month training course, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported here today.
"It is not so that we can drink better wine. We did the course because we needed that expertise to be able to understand the ways in which wine fraudsters operate," Col Pasquale Muggeo, who heads the squad, was quoted as saying.
"To my knowledge, there is no other unit in Europe with the same sort of qualifications as us on wine," he said.
Col Muggeo said the policemen had been invited to do the course by the Italian Sommeliers' Association. "The honest producers are pleased that we now know all about wine. The dishonest ones should be worried."
Italy is now the largest wine exporter in the world, having overtaken France last year. The country boasts more than 300 varieties of native vine and receives about 90 million pounds a year in subsidies from the European Union.
Consequently, it is an attractive market for fraudsters. "The most common frauds are mislabelling the bottle and putting in additives to make the wine seem better than it is," Col Muggeo said.
"It is possible to do anything with chemicals these days. I even saw these do-it-yourself boxes at a big wine trade fair. You get a powder and when you add water, it magically becomes fine wine. The quality is good enough that even some experts would be fooled."
He said that unscrupulous farmers often tried to make wine with "table" grapes that are grown for consumption, rather than wine-making. "In the south, there is abundance of these grapes, and with chemicals, they make a drinkable wine," the officer said, claiming to crack down on the wine mafia soon.
The members of the crack team of military police have recently qualified as professional sommeliers after completing an 18-month training course, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported here today.
"It is not so that we can drink better wine. We did the course because we needed that expertise to be able to understand the ways in which wine fraudsters operate," Col Pasquale Muggeo, who heads the squad, was quoted as saying.
"To my knowledge, there is no other unit in Europe with the same sort of qualifications as us on wine," he said.
Col Muggeo said the policemen had been invited to do the course by the Italian Sommeliers' Association. "The honest producers are pleased that we now know all about wine. The dishonest ones should be worried."
Italy is now the largest wine exporter in the world, having overtaken France last year. The country boasts more than 300 varieties of native vine and receives about 90 million pounds a year in subsidies from the European Union.
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Consequently, it is an attractive market for fraudsters. "The most common frauds are mislabelling the bottle and putting in additives to make the wine seem better than it is," Col Muggeo said.
"It is possible to do anything with chemicals these days. I even saw these do-it-yourself boxes at a big wine trade fair. You get a powder and when you add water, it magically becomes fine wine. The quality is good enough that even some experts would be fooled."
He said that unscrupulous farmers often tried to make wine with "table" grapes that are grown for consumption, rather than wine-making. "In the south, there is abundance of these grapes, and with chemicals, they make a drinkable wine," the officer said, claiming to crack down on the wine mafia soon.
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