Caribineri di Vino. AKA: Sommelier Cops.

Sometimes I really do just feel like everything in Europe is better. Of course, I know that this is just my food and wine version of the grass is greener. But then I hear stories like this one and I have to shake my head in wonder.

In America, our cops are busy being trained how to negotiate with a hijacked airplane and how to spot terrorists in a crowd. In Italy? They're training 25 of their military cops to be sommeliers so they can better track down wine fraud.

How cool is that? The best place to be a cop is certainly somewhere where there is never any crime. The second best place to be a cop, however, seems to be in Italy, where you have to drink a boatload of really good wine in order to be good at your job.

Of course the big question has to be whether they have been given combat grade corkscrews to hang on their belts.

Read the full story.

Posted by: Alder on August 25, 2007 8:27 PM: Filed under: Wine News; Like this post? Share it! Digg it! - Add to del.icio.us - Add to Stumbleupon - Add to Reddit

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Comments (5)

Jack wrote:

08.25.07 at 9:03 PM

Um, Alder, those corkscrews are actually mini Tasers(R).

Golly wrote:

08.26.07 at 2:40 PM

You just have to love the Italians, they know how to prioritise!

Alfonso wrote:

08.26.07 at 7:22 PM

First they get their uniforms redesigned by Versace and now this?
The outrage...

andrea gori wrote:

08.27.07 at 12:18 AM

I don't think it's too a bad idea! I think it's a nice move from our national Association and for the rest of the world, it shows that we really care on wine! and we want our wine to grow better and better. And as for fashion, piracy and fakes are the main problem! So Nice move again Franco Maria Ricci and AIS!

Alessandro wrote:

10.26.07 at 7:32 AM

I do agree with Alder.
Anyway we must consider that this kind of "tools" used by the Italian government are a "must" in a country that just 20 years ago had great damage from the "metanolo" scandal.
Wine business account in Italy for 14 billion $ so that I consider just normal (and not that "cool" or extraordinary) to protect consumers from wine that do not respect italian law. Next time we should talk about New World Wine that can easily jump italian law when imported.