Estate owner Gianfranco Soldera, who worked as an insurance broker in Milan before buying the vineyard in 1972, said he had no idea who might have been behind the raid in the early hours of Monday. His family described it as "a mafia-style act" but did not identify possible culprits, whether crime organisations or individuals. Making wine among the cypress trees and winding lanes of Tuscany may seem a genteel affair, but the world of Brunello di Montalcino has been marred by scandal in recent years after it was found that some producers were "cutting" their wine with other grape varieties, such as Merlot. In 2008 investigators confiscated more than half a million bottles from one prominent vintner, alleging that he could not possibly have made that much wine purely from Sangiovese grapes, and the government set up a panel of experts to monitor standards of purity. The Solderas have said they could quadruple their production if they were less rigorous in their standards, and their criticism of less scrupulous producers may have antagonised rivals. Case Basse is a small but highly acclaimed producer of Brunello di Montalcino, making around 10,000 bottles a year. More than seven million bottles of Brunello are produced on average every year, 60 percent of which are sold abroad, with the wine proving particularly popular in the United States. The sabotage is being investigated by prosecutors from Siena and Carabinieri police from nearby Montalcino, a town popular with British tourists which is dominated by a 14th century fortress. Fabrizio Bindocci, the president of the Brunello di Montalcino Consortium, condemned the act of sabotage and said it had shocked all 250 producers of the esteemed red in Tuscany. "They feel personally affected by this unpardonable act," he said. Silvio Franceschelli, the mayor of Montalcino, called the raid "ugly and cowardly" and expressed solidarity with the owners of the winery.