Friday, May. 30, 1969

Wine into Water

For months the carabinieri had been keeping an eagle eye on a padlocked wine cellar in the Adriatic seaport of Porto d'Ascoli. In it were 3,400,000 quarts of red wine stored in vats sealed by the police. The wine, an adulterated brew made of such confections as tar acid, ammonia, glycerin, citric acid, a sludge taken from the bottom of banana boats, and, of course, alcohol, was Exhibit A in a continuing case against 260 defendants charged with selling the grapeless vino throughout Italy. Oddly enough, those who sampled the stuff swore it tasted exactly like ordinary red table wine.

On a periodic checkup of the wine cellar, one carabiniere became suspicious of the pale rose color of the liquid. Investigation revealed that the Biblical miracle of Cana had been reversed--the wine had somehow turned to water. The police were chagrined--and utterly perplexed. How had so vast a quantity of wine been removed from the cellar?

After a search ranging from the River Po to the Bay of Naples, the carabinieri found their culprit right at home in Porto d'Ascoli. He was Fabbio Lanciotti, owner of a large winery and one of the defendants in the wine trial. Lanciotti had been able to make off with Exhibit A against him because the police had had the lack of foresight to store the impounded wine in Lanciotti's own wine cellar (the biggest in town). While free on bail, Lanciotti had been given permission to go on producing wine and had quietly siphoned off the sealed vats, using the gas-escape holes, and piped the stuff into adjoining empty vats. What's more, he had bottled and sold it all for a rumored $240,000.

When jailed, Lanciotti reportedly admitted everything, even that he had destroyed the $240,000 when he panicked as police closed in, though few believed the story. The carabinieri rounded up ten new defendants, six of them for selling the Lanciotti wine to shops and restaurants.

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