(USAToday) - Tuscany, home to many of Italy's best-known wines, may be in danger of tarnishing its reputation with a series of wine-related scandals.

The picturesque region in central Italy is just a victim of its own success, according to Fabrizio Bindocci, a Tuscan winemaker and president of the Brunello di Montalcino consortium.

"You don't get people making fraudulent copies of products nobody wants," Bindocci said.

Tuscany is known for the quality of its wine more than the quantity it produces, and the U.S. is the largest export market for Tuscan wines, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The region's wine industry, which produces about 180 million bottles of wine per year, has been rocked in recent months. One winemaker near the Tuscan coast planted a type of grape prohibited in the area and got kicked out of the local Val di Cornia designation in November.

A few weeks before that, a major Tuscan wine collector was arrested for trying to sell bottles of bogus high-prestige wines as legitimate.

Even bigger, more than a million bottles of low-quality wine — enough to fill half an Olympic-size swimming pool — were seized in two separate busts in September and October. Most of it was destined to be sold under some of Tuscany's best-known labels, including Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino, according to Italian media.

In May, another 30,000 bottles falsely labeled as Brunello and other top Tuscan wines — such as Chianti, Chianti Classico and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano — were seized just before being shipped to foreign markets, including the United States.

Bindocci said the consortium and Tuscan wine producers take the problem seriously. In two of the cases, bogus winemakers secured false certifications, which gave them thousands of extra tags used to guarantee a wine's pedigree. Those tag certifications are now monitored more tightly, Bindocci said.

In addition, there are increased controls to assure production levels match the land being cultivated, plus making sure the wine aging in barrels comes from grapes allowed under the region's wine laws.

"We are taking every step we can to assure that when a consumer opens a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino it will be the real thing every time," Bindocci said. "We are not underestimating the seriousness of what's been happening."

Andy Beal, a U.S.-based reputation management consultant, said regional officials appear to be doing everything they can to reduce any backlash from the recent scandals, including the safeguards Bindocci described. But risks still remain.

"When a reputation is damaged, it happens quickly," Beal said. "The time to take action is before — to strengthen the reputation of the region and the products. All signs are that they are doing what they can, but if the bad things keep happening, there will be a tipping point. And once that happens, it becomes much more difficult to confront."

Those comments were echoed by Giulia Ceriani, president of Baba Consulting and a communications and sociology professor at the University of Siena, in the heart of Tuscan wine country.

"These sorts of problems feed into unfortunate Italian stereotypes as inefficient and sloppy, and they can snowball by being spread by word of mouth and hearsay," Ceriani said. "The risks are great because the value of a luxury product is based on the way it is seen."

James Suckling, a leading wine critic who lives part time in Tuscany, said the reputation of Tuscan wine is secure, despite the recent issues.

"Every serious wine region has some problems, and in the case of Tuscany, the bad products were caught before they went to market," Suckling said. "What matters is what is in the bottle when a buyer opens it, and Tuscan wine remains one of the world's top wines."

Reinforcing his point is an even more high-profile wine scandal a few years ago in Tuscany. In 2008 and 2009, nearly two dozen winemakers were caught using both unauthorized grapes and "adulterated chemicals and other substances" in wine falsely labeled as Brunello.

Because of the safety issue, the scandal attracted more headlines than the recent events, but that wasn't reflected in the economic impact on the region.

"Following the scandals of 2008, what do you think sales of Brunello in the U.S. did in 2009? They rose 6%," said Jason Wilson, a Philadelphia wine educator.

"The perception of Tuscan authenticity has never really mattered much for most American consumers," Wilson said.