The Wine of the Same Old Cunning Ones

 What a beautiful country is Italy! Art, history, monuments, culture, land of saints and heroes. A beautiful place which is usually considered enchanted, favored by a good fate and by Mother Nature, with landscapes and places which take your breath away when you look at them. Then it comes the cooking: the Italian foods coloring the table are famous everywhere in the world, everywhere considered as tasty, refined and healthy. Can we can eventually forget about Italian wine? Of course not. High quality, a heritage of hundreds of grapes giving unique wines, with a variety which cannot be found in any other country of the world. Italian wine, an absolutely undeniable fact, is today among the best ones in the world, the remarkable job done by many producers has allowed Italy to reach remarkable results. A truly remarkable success, obtained with commitment and effort, something which would be a pity to lose because of some deplorable subjects who think they are more cunning than others, having no scruples and deceiving people, also at the cost of putting in danger other's health.

 These cunning subjects - although it would be better to call them idiots - are frequently responsible for destroying the good image of Italy and of its products. Deplorable subjects who believe they are superior and more intelligent than ohers - and showing at the same time their meanness and pettiness - while being aware of their incapacity, they believe it is normal, indeed cunning, to cheat on others, most of the times in a deplorable way. It is said men do not learn anything from hisroty: a sad truth of which we all see the results when we consider the errors the humanity makes and which could be avoided by simply remembering the tragic and disastrous results of past facts. In case they would have learnt something, for example, man would have understood the stupidity and inutility of war and conflicts, although he knows the devastating results they inevitably make, he still continues to make use of these methods, while making the same mistakes and showing all the times his low intelligence.

 Luckily, not all men are like that. There are many who have a sincere respect for others, many believe in honesty and correctness. Many understand the remarkable effort needed to get a result, also aware of the fact it takes very little to destroy something and all the efforts done. Reaching the top is always hard: one must always pay attention to everything and avoid to make mistakes which could be fatal and it takes very little to fall to the ground, even worse, to sink down. The cunning ones, in their absolute incapacity, take advantage of the job of others - therefore taking advantage of the success of those who worked hard in order to get a result - and in a deplorable way they always end up destroying the good image and respecability of all. Men never learn something from history: in this sense, Italians are certainly not an exception to this. It was not enough the damage done by the so called methanol wine scandal in the middle of the 1980s and how hard it was to recover from that and to rebuild the credibility of Italian wine: some idiots believe it is cunning to learn nothing from that lesson.

 In a reportage done by L'Espresso, one of the most famous Italian weekly magazines, was reported the Italian judiciary and the police are investigating on what has been defined as the biggest food fraud and sophistication discovered in Italy. According to the report published by L'Espresso, this sophistication would affect seventy millions liters of wine destined to bulk marketing and sold at a low price. In the wine confiscated by the police were found traces of fertilizers, carcinogens, water, sugar, hydrochloric acid and only one fifth of grape juice. Something which certainly leaves dismayed and speechless. How can it be possible there are such a cynic people having no scruples and put in danger the health of others? How can it be possible no one thought about verifying the quality and healthiness of such a huge quantity of wine, if we consider the remarkable quantity and it was destined to a high number of consumers? Investigations are still in progress and until they make things clear, every accusation or supposition could be unfounded. And we certainly hope these facts will be denied soon.

 Was it not enough the hard lesson of the methanol wine scandal, a sad fact which costed the life of 19 people and 15 have become blind, as well as the dmage done to the entire Italian wine industry and of its credibility in the world? Things do not certainly get better to know the sophisticated wine was destined at a low price market - generally sold from 70 cents and 2 euros per liter - sold in supermarkets and which should not involve, at least in theory, the so called quality wine. This does not certainly save anyone: we all are consumers, we all can be victims of such deplorable facts. it is disconcerting to know there are cunning subjects who for their deplorable interest put in danger the health and life of others, subjects who must certainly pay a very high price in terms of justice. It is not acceptable the existence of such a deplorable culture, so unrespectful of others, only to ensure the profit and the economic advantage of few ones.

 In the pages of the weekly magazine L'Espresso are also reported other frauds which, at least in this case, are not dangerous for the health. It is read some producers of Brunello di Montalcino would have added to Sangiovese Grosso - the only grape allowed by the production disciplinary - other varieties in order to give the wine specific organoleptic qualities. Also in this case, the damage of image is certainly remarkable and we hope - in case these facts are proved and confirmed - they will take proper measures against these cunning subects. Once again, we wonder how they do the controls the law requires to be done, while remembering the disciplinary regulating the production of a wine is a law and, as such, it should be respected and made sure it is respected. In this sense, the consortiums for the safeguarding of wines should be more severe with their members, first of all, in order to safeguard the job of honest producers as well as the image of their wines. The same must do the law: dignity and health of people come before everything else; certainly before the economic and personal interests of the “same old cunning ones”. We strongly hope this fact will be denied, for the good of Italian wine, for the good of health and dignity of people.