THE TTB - BRUNELLO “SUMMIT”: “A USEFUL EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION ON QUALITY AND CONTROLS”. BUT THE ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO TAX AND TRADE BUREAU HAD ACTUALLY PLANNED THEIR TRIP BEFORE THE NEWS OF THE MONTALCINO INVESTIGATION HAD EVEN BEEN LEAKED

In an important side note that was not previously mentioned, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) delegation that recently visited the Enoteca Italiana di Siena had been organized months ahead of the Brunello di Montalcino “scandal” as a normal diplomatic trip through the Italian Wine & Food Institute.

Apart from this, the “mini summit” between the Brunello di Montalcino Consortium and the TTB delegation lasted about an hour and was deemed a “useful exchange of information”: “a useful and cordial encounter, in which the American functionaries” – explained the president of the Brunello Consortium, Patrizio Cencioni – “got a clear idea of how the denominations of origin work and the controls that work around this. And they were even surprised about the quality and number of controls”.

The representatives of the TTB had asked which names were involved in the recent Brunello investigations but, explained the Consortium president, Patrizio Cencioni, “we could only tell them that we had read them in the newspaper”. The U.S. inspectors explained that, for the American government, the main problem is the correspondence between the product and the label, and not the quality of Brunello, which in the U.S. is a symbol of “Made in Italy”.

“Their mentality” – observed Cencioni – is that the product must correspond with the label. They do not have a problem with the equality of the product but only with its correspondence since that is what the investigation is about”. The attitude of the American functionaries was that of people who wanted to understand and who were interested in the continued importance of this wine that is much appreciated by American consumers”.

But the decision to block the importation of Brunello that is involved in the investigation “depends on them” – concluded Cencioni – “and we cannot do much more than this”.