He doesn't have to put on the red light, but Sting ought to tone down his criticisms of a Tuscan vineyard he says he was tricked into buying.
That's the message from the son of Duke Simone Vincenzo Velluti Zati di San Clemente, who says the legendary musician owes his family an apology for his 'false, poisonous slander' regarding the sale of the sprawling 865-acre property.
Earlier this month, the former Police singer recounted his purchase an eighteenth-century vineyard and estate in Il Palagio, Italy, in 1999.
During an interview with Italian publication Corriere della Sera, Sting said he and his wife made numerous trips to the property as they mulled buying it. The decisive factor, he said, was a delightful glass of Chianti.
'[The Duke] offered us a glass of red from a carafe during one of our early visits to Il Palagio,' Sting recently told the publication. 'We were negotiating the purchase. We liked the property a lot, even though it was in ruins. The duke asked me if I wanted to taste the wine produced by the estate and I said yes. It was an excellent wine and that convinced me to buy the vineyards as well.'
Sting and wife, Trudie Styler, say they were misled into purchasing a sprawling Tuscan estate
The couple claims a decisive glass of wine that persuaded them to make the purchase was produced in another region of Italy
The trouble, Sting claimed, was that the wine did not hail from the property. Instead, he said he later learned the beverage he was served was a Barolo, an imposter from another region.
'When we served the wine from the estate to our guests, I saw that someone was emptying their glass into a flowerbed…' Sting said. 'It was then that we decided to avenge ourselves and to show that it was possible to produce excellent wine from the vineyards at Palagio. Our whole Tuscan adventure has really been a way of getting our own back.'
His claims have left San Clemente Jr. seeing a merlot shade of red.
He said Sting's allegations have damaged his father's memory, as well as the family's reputation.
'Apart from the fact that an internationally experienced gentleman like Sting (he was 46 years old at the time) should not confuse Barolo with Chianti, Nebbiolo with Sangiovese, nothing could be more alien to my father's character,
