On Monday new rules governing imports to the United States of the Italian wine Brunello di Montalcino went into effect but the Italian government must still decide who will be responsible for authenticating the premier wine.
The rules were hammered out in negotiations between American and Italian authorities and avoided the risk of an import ban, which would have gone into effect Monday.
The US Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) had threatened to ban Brunello imports because of revelations that some producers were blending their wine with grapes other than Sangiovese grown inside of Montalcino in Tuscany.
This meant that the wine did not qualify for the official Brunello DOCG designation and represented a case of fraud.
According to American Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, ''the Brunello problem has never been about health risk, it's about labeling''.
Authentication of the wine had been the responsibility of the consortium of Brunello producers but this was revoked earlier in June by the Italian agriculture ministry in the wake of the blending scandal and the subsequent TTB threat.
Under the new TTB rules, in order to clear customs in the US, Brunello shipments must be accompanied by a certificate from each producer which is co-signed by Italian authorities attesting to the fact that it meets all the requirements to obtain the Brunello di Montalcino appellation.
The TTB had initially demanded that the wine be subject to laboratory analysis to guarantee that it was 100% Sangiovese.
The new certificate is called a certificate of label approval (COLA) and the government authentication must state that the product's vintage date and brand name meet the requirements for Brunello di Montalcino DOCG denomination and that it meets all standards for sale in Italy.
It must also include the name and address of the producer.
One certificate will be valid for multiple shipments from the same producer with the same vintage and it must be kept on the importers premises.
The agriculture ministry said at the weekend that it was still working on a decree indicating to producers which state authority must co-sign the producers' certificate.
Brunello di Montalcino is perhaps Italy's finest wine and certainly among the best in the world.
Its popularity has been rising steadily in the US which, despite a weak dollar, consumed 25% of the Brunello on the market and some 45% of all quality wine produced in Tuscany last year.
