Vitriolic Vino: And You Thought Miley Cyrus Was Outrageous?

OK, a lot our US readership has probably been all caught up in the aftermath of Miley Cyrus' VMA performance.  (I only discovered the Robin Thicke song late last week, so Sunday's hub-bub was well-timed from my perspective.)  Well, let me tell you....there are controversies here too.

You might think that the world of Italian vino is all about peace, love, and understanding.  I mean, we're talking about wine and we're talking about doing wine in Italy.  It couldn't get much better, si?  Au contraire!  The Italian wine world has been embroiled in controversies.

First, there is the story of Fulvio Bressan.  Bressan is from the Friuli region in northern Italy, and he is a very celebrated wine-maker.  He is also, apparently, quite outspoken.  Bressan recently unleashed some  highly racist commentary about Cecile Kyenge -- Italy's current Minister for Integration and the first African-Italian government minister in the country's history.  (Kyenge has been the subject of lots of vile attacks.)  Bressan came under fire for his comments in social media from the Italian wine world and, instead of apologizing, he actually doubled down.  You can read about the controversy here:

www.parlafood.com/fulvio-bressan-the-man-behind-the-wine/

www.1winedude.com/fulvio-bressan-comment-wine-debacl/

The second story might be even more shocking.  Bressan's disgusting statements are at least not directly attached to his wine -- or its packaging.  The NYT had a story the other day about an Italian winery that puts pictures of Hitler and other Nazis (e.g., Himmler, Goring, Eva Braun) on its labels.  Vini Lunardelli has supposedly been doing this for 20 years!  Here's the NYT article:

www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/world/europe/from-italy-a-vintage-redolent-of-horrors.html?pagewanted=all

Thanks for checking in.  You can now return to the news on Syria, Miley Cyrus, and Matt Harvey's injury.