The heir to an Italian winery that has long produced an Adolf Hitler varietal says he will be putting a cork in its “historical” series of wines next year.
“That’s enough. We’re sick and tired of all this controversy,” Andrea Lunardelli, who expects to take over Vini Lunardelli in early 2023, told an Italian newspaper this week. “So from next year, the whole historical line with labels of people like Hitler and Mussolini will disappear.”
If Lunardelli goes through with his promise, it would bring to an end a three-decade line of Nazi-themed business for his family’s company — and to waves of criticism, including from Jewish groups, that have accompanied it.
Vini Lunardelli, located in Friuli Venezia Giulia, in northeastern Italy, first introduced the series featuring dictators and fascist figures such as Francisco Franco and Josef Stalin in 1995. The company’s site currently boasts over 37 different labels, featuring dozens of Nazi-glorying slogans such as “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!” (“One People, One Empire, One Ruler”); “Sieg Heil” (“Hail Victory”)” and “Der Prosecco Vom Führer” (“The Führer’s Prosecco”). Another series features symbols and words associated with Benito Mussolini and his fascist government in Italy.
The wines have long generated outrage as well as official censure. In 1997, the German government lodged several complaints, and 10 years later Italian police seized bottles from the business in an effort to “minimize fascism’s propaganda.” But a month later, an Italian judge determined they were legal to sell.
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