Heir to the Italian Vini Lunardelli winery says they will put an end to producing their “historical” series of wines, which included labels of people like Hitler and Mussolini.
Heir to the Italian Vini Lunardelli will take over the winery in early 2023, and will put an end to producing their historical line, which featured figures like Hitler and Mussolini on its labels and provoked major controversy.
“That’s enough. We’re sick and tired of all this controversy,” said Andrea Lunardelli. “So from next year, the whole historical line with labels of people like Hitler and Mussolini will disappear.”
Lunardelli’s family has been a Nazi-themed business for three-decades, introducing the first 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, reports The Times Of Israel.
These wines have long been receiving waves of criticism, 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.
The latest outrage was sparked earlier this month after a tourist in a resort near Venice came across the bottles in a grocery store and posted them on Facebook. While most European countries, like Germany and Austria, have strict rules prohibiting the sale of items of Nazi memorabilia, in Italy, it is still legal to sell the wines of Vini Lunardelli.
According to Andrea Lunardelli “Whoever buys [the Hitler wine] is a collector, or remembers history, or wants nationalism against the current policies of multinationals… not against Jews,” he told Vice.
Germany’s Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Antisemitism has long been trying to put an end to the sale of the wines, claiming that “the marketing strategy is disrespectful to all victims of the Nazi regime and their descendants.”
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