fools and their monies are soon parted - the wine way!

The old adage still holds true after all of these years. Late last month, Italian police broke up yet another ring of wine counterfeiters. The scam involved the faking of bottles of predominantly Barolo, Brunello, Amarone, and Chianti with juice obtained in the southern Italian region of Puglia. These ersatz bottings, very sophisticated ones by the way, were being funneled primarily into German supermarkets - some bottles whose contents were deemed to be worth 2 Euros, were being sold in some cases for more than 100!

Sure, we can and should blame the fakers first and foremost - they’re greedy, dishonest opportunists, and deserve to be permanently put out of business and heavily fined. But there’s another saying that says “It takes two to tango”, and the other partner in this dance of deceit is the greedy and/or uneducated consumer. This is how I see it…Sure it makes economic sense to fake Italy’s most prestigious wines. The “3 big B’s”, and Amarone, etc. are indeed “noble” wines. For various reasons, they do cost more to produce than many other other wines, but a sizable chunk of what these wines cost is not based on any real cost structure, but simply perceived prestige plus demand. And as harsh as this might sound, wines like this all too often attract people who have more interest in what wines like this represent in terms of status than in what they represent in terms of culture, history, quality, etc. And all too often, these label chasers are less likely to have even a snowball’s chance in hell of sussing out the fraud, and this is one of the reasons (aside from the economic one) why the deceitful choose these wines over others - they know that these types of wines attract more bullion than brains; more greed than grasp, and this almost certainly stimulates someone’s Robin Hood gene - a way to steal from ignorant, greedy, and status-obessessed rich folks with little chance of having the drinkers themselves blow the whistle.

Now clearly, not everyone who got swindled here was rich or greedy or status obssessed, but let’s face it, faking Verdicchio or Castel del Monte just isn’t very lucrative or even necessary, but those who buy into the notion that certain wines make them cool or sophisticated, and who don’t diversify their “drinking portfolio” are just that much more vulnerable to these deceits. Will I spend $60 or $70 per bottle OCCAISIONALLY to build my cellar, sure, but TONS of people who get into wine - mostly the super type-A personalities with LOTS of money - one way or another gravitate toward cult Cabernets, 100 total case production Shirazes, and $100 bottles of Barolo at the expense of nearly EVERYTHING else. Suggesting a dry Hungarian Furmint or a warm red from Alentejo can bring anything from indifference to overt, snorting disdain, and whether these folks know it or not, these money and status-based “tastes” make them the most most vulnerable to getting rooked.

Further, though the exact labels that were faked were not disclosed in anything that I have read thus far, I’m pretty confident in guessing that they were the BIG, “gold standard” names in their respective categories. Faking the wines of a little known, artisanal, though nonetheless BRILLIANT producers is not only MUCH more difficult (suddenly producer “X”, who normally turns out 3,000 bottles per vintage, is now turning up everywhere), but will not produce the desired effect for the counterfeiter (big $$$!). Intended or unintended, drinkers with more money than knowledge are the targets here, and I daresay that most of them will never know they’ve been snookered.

Now could it have been you or I that got swindled on some of these bottles? - easily, just as easily as the intended marks. Am I in any way defending these crooks? Absolutely not, but this is not the first time that this has happened, and it probably won’t be the last, but until we stop anointing certain wines as SO FAR superior to others, we’re perpetually vulnerable, and the more you follow the fashions, the more vulnerable you are, full stop. Educate yourself, persue and cultivate new tastes and places, and as always, caveat emptor. Here’s a link to DECANTER magazine’s short piece on the event:

POLICE UNCOVER ITALIAN WINE FRAUD

TOM CIOCCO

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