Caveat emptor: why provenance matters

It recently came to our attention that our 2004 Brunello di Montalcino was being offered en primeur by a U.S. retailer for a price far below market value. Needless to say, the Franceschi family as well as my father and I are very concerned by this: when we see such things, we know that somehow our wines have been removed from the normal and official channels of distribution. And this means that the provenance of the wine is suspect. 

For winemakers, there is nothing worse than knowing that a product to which you have given all your love and effort — as you would to your child — has been taken away and that you no longer can control its condition and fitness before it reaches the consumer. We work very closely with our importers and distributors to make sure that our products reach the consumer with the utmost care possible so that the wine is not damaged by improper storage or shipping. In the U.S., Terlato is the only importer to whom we issue the authenticity certification required by the U.S. government for all imports of Brunello di Montalcino.

We wrote to our friend and noted Italian wine blogger Alfonso Cevola and he wrote back: "The problem with the gray market is the provenance of the wines and even the authenticity. A 2004 Brunello such as Il Poggione selling [at such a low price] on presale is highly suspect. As a supplier, I would suspect that the wine being offered might not be bona fide."

Laura Jensen, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Terlato (our US importer) noted that "the gray market should be a concern to all consumers and retailers. We guarantee the quality and authenticity of wines that we import and sell and work diligently to ensure that brands like Il Poggione reach the trade and the consumer in optimal condition. We know exactly when the wine left the winery, how it was shipped and when it arrived in the US. We guarantee that any bottle of wine we sell is exactly what is it claimed to be. If wines are purchased from sources other than the primary source, there is no way to guarantee this."

Other wine writers, as well, have noted that the so-called "gray market" is a risky affair. In the Wine Spectator's Essentials of Wine (published in 2000), esteemed writer Harvey Steinman observed: "The gray market can provide hard-to-find wines and even offer them at a bargain. But if anything the wine must pass through even more hands than it would going through normal channels… Caveat emptor."

Comments

[Jeremy Parzen]

Ale, this is a great post and it really provides some insight to issues of provenance in our country: people are always looking for the rock bottom price but they don't realize that they are getting exactly what they pay for!

[Pameladevi Govinda]

Hi Alessandro, Sorry to hear about your wine reaching consumers through unauthorized channels. It's such a complicated issue because the three tier system is a archaic and it does add cost but having wine that could possibly be counterfeit or just in plain bad condition means the consumer looses out in the end. Beyond wine buyers and consumers that feel they are getting a good deal on the grey market, it must be heartbreaking for winemakers.

I wrote about this very subject a few years ago for Decanter and more recently for City magazine. If you're interested in reading the pieces I'll send you the URL

[tracie b]

is this gray market wine destined for private buyers or restaurants/retail? if it's the latter, how would they provide an invoice for the ABC?

[AC]

they cannot. they would not tell them. And yes it is illegal...but known to happen from time to time