They sold as Sardinian DOC and DOCG wine a low-quality product that actually came from Sicily and Puglia. Twenty-nine people received from the Carabinieri of the Bonorva Company the notification of closure of the investigation by the Tempio Pausania Prosecutor's Office relating to a proceeding started in 2022 and which sees them accused, to varying degrees, of the crimes of fraudulent declaration through the use of invoices for non-existent transactions, aggravated commercial fraud, counterfeiting of geographical indications or designations of origin of agri-food products and ideological forgery in the drafting of transport documents and wine certifications.
The investigations, conducted by the Carabinieri in collaboration with officials from the Central Inspectorate for the Protection of Quality and the Repression of Fraud in Sardinian Agri-food Products, and the Guardia di Finanza of Sassari, concern producers and traders of Sardinian, Sicilian and Apulian wine, owners of transport companies in Sardinia and on the Peninsula, owners of distilleries and technicians from the control body for DOC wines on the Island .
According to the charges, they sold ordinary wine labeled as Cannonau di Sardegna Doc, Vermentino di Sardegna Doc and Vermentino di Gallura Docg marketed by a winery operating in northern Sardinia and in the national territory. In particular, it was ascertained that the Sardinian winery certified higher wine stocks than the actual ones, inflating the yields of grapes produced per hectare of its vineyards and simulating the purchase of DOC and DOCG grapes and wine from compliant Sardinian operators. The winery therefore, according to the elements in the possession of the Prosecutor's Office, purchased low-quality wines from Sicily and Puglia that arrived in Sardinia via a specialized transport company, in tanks without documents or accompanied by fictitious declarations of partial loading . The wine was then accounted for, blended and sold as DOC or DOCG di Sardegna.
The investigations carried out in wine companies in Sardinia, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Sicily, combined with in-depth tax checks, have allowed us to
