Italy’s financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, and the food fraud inspectorate ICQRF have seized around 2.5 million litres of wine falsely certified as DOP or IGP, that is, as wine of protected origin. The operation, named Vinum Mentitum, was run from Rome, and the value of the seized wine exceeds four million euros.
According to a report by the television station Antenna Sud, 24 people have been reported to the authorities. Lieutenant Colonel Antonio De Cristofaro said the aim of the operation was to protect the market and consumers, while the authorities have not yet released the names of the companies involved or said at which point in the chain the wine was intercepted.
Even without those details, the scale of the case is unusual. Two and a half million litres is more than three million bottles, which means the scheme, had it not been uncovered, could have reached a large number of buyers and sales channels. The value of four million euros also shows how much a designation of origin is worth on the market, because that price difference is precisely the motive for fraud.
For producers who follow the rules, such cases mean double damage. They pay for controls and compliance, and on the shelves they are undercut by cheaper wine carrying the same name. That is why the Italian trade expects the case to increase pressure on traceability and documentation along the whole chain, from cellar records to bulk sales.
Croatia has the same system of protected designations and the same rules, so the case is a reminder that a designation on the label is worth only as much as the supervision behind it. Do we need stronger controls? We do.
