The peach tree in Cascina degli Ulivi

Let's talk about the peach tree.

Remember when the Rome wine store, Bulzoni was busted for having a section of wines devoted to natural? As there was no such thing as natural wine, selling wine as natural was a fraud perpetrated on the innocent wine drinkers of Italy.  

During that debacle the authorities seized four bottles of each offending wines for analysis. However, according to to Sonia Toretto who works for Stefano Bellotti ( the much beloved Cascina degli Ulivi)  a dozen each of  the degli Ulivi were taken for  testing.  

                                                                                 

My speculation: as Stefano has been in biodynamics  longer than any other winery in the country (since 1987) he's a marked man. Perhaps they were looking for a pot farm. Perhaps they were looking for a meth lab. But what they found was equally a danger to the people.

There in the middle of the cortese vines were peach trees.

Diversity in the vines is essential for vineyard health. Mono-culture, is anathema to organic and biodynamic farming. Yet, Regione Piemonte ruled that having more than 1% extraneous plants in a vineyard is considered no longer a mono- culture  of vines and therefore not worthy of public financing and right of appellation.  

Over the years, the government has given agricultural incentives to many winemakers and Stefano was one of them. Now, there was the threat that because of the trees, he was going to be stripped of the Gavi DOC. Gavi is where he makes wine. The DOC is  emblem of pride. In addition,  he had to pay money back years of incentives.

Forms of felonious life in  Stefano's vines. 

Sonia confirmed that the events took an even further bizarre turn. After all, we're talking Italy. "Last Wednesday," she wrote, "the government seized about 30,000 bottles, about a third of Stefano's stocks, due to inaccurate "non conforme"--criminal labelling of the wines."

The charge? He did not use both of his certifications on the label that he was entitled to.  He used his Demeter certification on the 2007 vintage. He did not use his organic certification. Fraud! Of what I am not sure.

The team Piemonte was off and running. They tested those bottles they confiscated after the the Bulzoni affair for pesticide and herbicde residue and lack of sulfur.  Stefano's wines were true to his word.  Yet they still fined him about 1200 euro per label for certification issue and 'correct' the labels.

But  there might be some good news about those peach trees and the salvation of the  Gavi DOC. The technician called the winery and did a little back-pedalling, "Maybe I might think about this some more. Because I really don't know much about biodynamics and biodiversity."

Over Skype Sonia told me, "They are paying people to make decisions who don't know anything. If you ask my eight-year-old son, he knows about the importance of biodiversity. It's just common knowledge." 

It's been a strange year in the world of wine where the race to steal its soul has been full-force. The Loire cracked down on Olivier Cousin. There was the  Bulzoni affair. There is Stefano. Is it merely ignorance, or is it darker? Could I project that one day Monsanto will put pressure on the EU to make sure the peach trees aren't in the vines, that biodiversity is broken, so they can sell more chemicals? Can we see the day when winemakers are punished for not using Roundup? This isn't too far fetched. The world, after all, is nuts. 

No matter the reason, wrong people are being challenged ,those who don't pollute, and those who seek purity are viewed as the culprits. Who was it who said, authenticity is  always threatening? 

 

 

The cheerful criminal himself, Stefano when I visited in 2006.

Comments

[Nick Gorevic]

I don't understand why there aren't a thousand comments on this post Alice. People should be up in arms! Someone start a petition! Bring light to the shocking Italian bureaucratic stupidness you've discovered. Where's the outrage people!?

[Alicefeiring]

Nick, I agree with you!

[Mike Roth]

From what I hear from my Italian friends and what I read in the news, as sad as it is, this isn't the only problem in Italy. Hopefully Mr. Bellotti will abandon the DOC, as Mr. Cousin did Anjou, and the consumers will follow his splendid wines where ever they land.

[penguinoid]

Depressing to read about this. I hope things work out all right in the end. The lack of biodiversity in vineyards is something that's always worried me, though, so particularly stupid he should be persecuted for trying to bring in some biodiversity. Monocultures are never stable systems in the long run...

[Brigitte Armenier]

Hello Mike, why should Mr. Bellotti "hopefully abandon the DOC"? For if conventional farming cultivates the spirit of monoculture and exclusion, Biodynamics on the other hand looks for biodiversity, be it in the vineyards or in a social organization of individuals as a DOC can be understood.

Alice, as far as I know Mr. Bellotti practices Biodynamics since 1984, meaning that 2012 is his 28th year of work with the preparations and an understanding of the cosmic rhythms. I can imagine that the meaning of a 28th year didn't escape him…

Ending the year on space and time :)

[Lorie Honor]

Hi Nick...I wish that we and the peasant class, that Stefano Bellotti, enthusiastically describes himself as joining when he decided to farm, would rally with pens and pitchforks in hand but perhaps the best way that we can honor Stefano is to drink his wine and let healthy commerce for him and delicious peach-tainted wine for us be the last word.
Thanks Alice for shining the light on this....I'm ordering as we speak!

[D]

Government ineptitude and bureaucracy or corporate greed ala Monsanto...damned if you do, damned if you don't. Doing business here with government is painful enough but I'd sooner attempt performing open heart surgery on myself with a rusty spoon than deal with the Italian government for business.