THE CONSORTIUM OF BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO HAS DECIDED TO SUE (AND EXPEL) GIANFRANCO SOLDERA: "EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE STATEMENTS MADE TO “CORRIERE DELLA SERA” ON MARCH 26TH, WHERE HE CALLED THE CONSORTIUM’S PROPOSAL TO DONATE WINE FOR SOLIDARITY A “SCAM”

"The Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino retains Gianfranco Soldera’s statements reported by Corriere della Sera on March 26th extremely detrimental, and has decided to file a defamation lawsuit against Soldera. The lawsuit that will be presented in the Milan Court pertains to the part of the interview released by the owner of the Azienda Case Basse who judged "inadmissible and offensive, a fraud to consumers" the proposal of the Consortium to give him – after an employee of the Soldera company poured barrels of wine into the sewers - "solidarity wine" in a different bottle and label".

So reads the official note of the Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino. As highlighted by the President of the Consortium Fabrizio Bindocci, "we believe it is our duty to file a lawsuit in order to protect the image of the producers of Brunello and the whole territory of Montalcino. We feel deeply hurt and damaged by these and other negative statements Soldera made about the Consortium and the producers upon the event that involved him and his company. We have taken this action because of the clamor from the wine producers who called for a strong gesture towards those who offend their honor and their work. There is no other reading in our decision and we clearly stress this, once and for all”.
Following the lawsuit, the Council of the Consortium also decided to immediately expel Gianfranco Soldera – who would be resigning in 2015 - for such grave conduct as to make his further participation the Consortium irreconcilable.
Returning to the lawsuit, Bindocci reiterates, "it is incomprehensible that he calls a scam a gesture toward which initially in a press release Soldera himself had expressed "our heartfelt thanks”.
Gianfranco Soldera’s statement in full reads”:
"They wanted to give me wine that I would have had to bottle as mine, not knowing where it came from. This is an inadmissible and offensive proposal and a real scam to the consumer”. The Consortium emphasizes that the proposal was to be considered a symbolic gesture of solidarity, since his company had suffered serious harm as a result of an act of vandalism.

"What we want to emphasize”, concludes Bindocci, “is that the statement reported by Corriere della Sera as well as the tone he used and the unfounded allegations in that interview have considerably damaged the image of Brunello and its territory, one of the Italian excellences in the world”.

Info: www.consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it