by Michèle Shah
On November the 14th, the Italian Minister for Agriculture Paolo de Castro signed a decree which bans wood chips in all of Italy DOC's and DOCG's, "so as to protect the high quality of our products." According to de Castro, there is no need for wood chips: "Italian wine exports have increased by 500 million Euros over the past 5 year, without them - and there are other ways to improve the competitiveness of the sector without altering the product."
