Breaking: Soldera Leaves Brunello Consorzio

Soldera Owner, Gianfranco Soldera

 

In yet another bizarre twist to this unfathomable story, Gianfranco Soldera publically stated, in an interview with the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera , that he would be leaving the Brunello Consorzio effective March 22, 2013.

 

According to Soldera, the Brunello Consorzio wished to donate wine to Soldera so that he could bottle it, and sell it as though it were his.  To Soldera, "this was an offensive and unacceptable proposal" that was tantamount to cheating the consumer.

 

It didn't take long for the Consorzio to respond through it's Vice President, Donatella Colombini.  As reported here, Colombini wrote:  "How could it be that the producers, by giving him the gift of part of their production to help him in a difficult moment, thus creating a "Solidarity Brunello", be offensive?  And he responds in this manner - isn't he ashamed of himself ?"

 

In the brief release, Soldera provided no specific reason for his departure from the Consorzio, but did issue the following "clarification":
 

"To avoid speculation, we have decided to sell the wine that we saved, including:

 

1) Part of the 2006 vintage that had been bottled, and...

 

2) Limited production of the years 2007 through 2012 that will go on the market in the coming years.
 

Finally, we confirm the resolve of our family to continue to produce wine exclusively with grapes from our vines of Sangiovese Case Basse."

We will continue to update this current story whenever possible.