Storage chaos: time is running out and controls are missing, without which wine cannot be unblocked

After having seen for months a stagnant or slowed down market due to the closed restaurants for the anti-Covid measures, the last straw for a wine producer, now, would be not being able to respond to the orders that arrive because of the inefficiencies of the control system that keep the stored product blocked. Unless they decide to put the wine on the market anyway, but then lose the contributions promised to help companies in liquidity crisis (but not yet disbursed) to stock the same wines in order not to sell them during the most difficult months of the various lockdonw. Yet, these days, this also happens. The complaint comes from Confagricoltura Siena, but the problem is a national one. Because as already reported by WineNews, at the end of May, there are enormous delays in the controls necessary both to disburse the contributions (9.5 million euros is the total ceiling) and to allow producers to put the wine on the market, on the eve of the deadline for the obligatory storage of 6 months sanctioned by the ministerial decree of last November. On the other hand, the decree appointing the authority in charge of controls, which had to be issued within 2 months of the “storage decree” (of May 2020, then converted into law in October 2020), arrived only on June 22, 2021.
In the province of Siena alone (where there are denominations such as Chianti Classico, Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Nobile di Montepulciano and Vernaccia di San Gimignano, for example), "more than 46,000 hectoliters of fine wines from 67 wineries in the Province of Siena and for a value of more than 8 million euros are blocked in the cellar because of non-compliance with the controls by the Ministry of Agriculture, following the decree of November 26th on the private storage of quality wines".
“Unfortunately, as of today, producers cannot unblock the wine as the mandatory controls foreseen by the regulations have not been carried out even though the storage period is coming to an end - explains the director of Confagricoltura Siena, Gianluca Cavicchioli - and besides the damage, there is also the mockery: many entrepreneurs have signed contracts with buyers for the delivery of the product and all this just a few weeks before the beginning of the new harvest. The Ministerial Decree of November 26, 2020 concerning the measure of private storage for quality wines for the year 2020 provides for the conduct of final checks for the closure of storage. Article 4, paragraph 3 provides, in fact, that the control body carries out “at the producers’ establishments, the final checks for the closure of storage by drawing up appropriate minutes”. In the absence of these reports the AGEA will not pay the aid and release the guarantees. We invite the Ministry to individuate as soon as possible a streamlined procedure in order to accelerate controls in order to release the wine in a short time. What is happening is unacceptable - concludes Cavicchioli - our producers cannot fight against the pandemic and, at the same time, against bureaucracy and mismanagement; we hope that this unpleasant and damaging event can serve as a warning for the wine storage decree for the year 2021”.