The Dregs of a Deadly Scandal

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Despite these efforts, there was no doubt that Italy had suffered a traumatic blow. In Denmark, where a 6,613-gal. shipment of cheap Italian vermouth was found to contain dangerous amounts of methyl alcohol, officials issued a ban on all Italian wines. West Germany imposed border controls requiring Italian wine imports to be cleared by government chemists. And in France, the government seized 4.4 million gal. of suspect wine and dumped at least 1.3 million gal. Clearly, it would be a long time before the world's consumers fully recovered their confidence in one of Italy's best-known and most widely distributed products.

FOOTNOTE: *The six: Baroncini of Solarolo, Ravenna; Biscardo of Calmasino, Verona; Cauda of Cuneo, Piedmont; Mascarello of La Morra, Piedmont; Ricordi of Piave, Treviso; Tombacco of Trebaseleghe, Padua.