Sunday, March 22, 2015

Arsenic In Wine

A lawsuit filed in California claims that dangerous levels of arsenic exist in many popular wines:


I'm not much of a wine drinker but I think that this news could be devastating for California wine producers and those who sell them; they must fend off the claims and charges if they're spurious.

21 comments:

chickelit said...

Note the elitist admonition: "Don't Drink Cheap Wine."

From what I understand, the reason there is more arsenic in cheaper brands is due to differences in processes for making them. This then becomes a challenge -- to fix that problem without raising costs.

chickelit said...

BTW, there are people in South America who have adapted a higher tolerance for arsenic: link

rhhardin said...

You get all the arsenic you need already from Chinese garlic powder.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

This sucks. First I had to stop drinking wine made from apples because of the alar and now this.

john said...

When we lived in Hawaii my blood tested higher for arsenic. Volcanic terrain, most likely, as I did not then, and do not now, think my wife was trying to poison me.

Back in the 90's when the EPA lowered the arsenic limit in drinking water from 50 to 10 ppb, they based it on a study that used the old Bangladesh and Indian cases of arsenic poisoning in well water, at tens to hundreds of parts per million. The evidence that arsenic was harmful at 50 ppb, much less 10 ppb, was nonexistent.

Nevertheless it caused quite a few scares (and still does).

ricpic said...

Switch to whites. We've got the best whites made in America right here in the Finger Lakes, New York State.

edutcher said...

Cary Grant nods.

Trooper York said...

This is amazing that you posted this topic today.

Last night we went to one of our favorite old school guinea joints the Red Rose. I have been going to it for thirty years.

Anyway I ordered a carafe of the house red with is Sangiovese and usually pretty nice. The wife got a terrible allergic reaction and I had to run to Rite Aide for Benedryl. I wonder if it was arsenic?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ Trooper

Probably sulfites. The sulfites in some wines cause my husband to have terrible headaches/migraines. Might as well just hit himself over the head with a hammer.

chickelit said...

Trooper, I doubt it's arsenic in your wife's case. As for sulfites -- they are put in wine as an antioxidant to prevent wine from souring and as an antibacterial. Wine has residual sugars which bacteria love. Without sulfites, you've have to drink the stuff fresh like raw milk.

Red wines also contain tannins and histamines. The later might explain why benadryl worked as a cure.

Trooper York said...

I think it was because the mook who was waiting on us touched fish and then the inside of the glass. She is deathly allergic to fish and that could have caused it.

To think these assholes got an A on their inspection.

The wife of the guy who owns it wasn't there and she usually runs the bar so that might have contributed to it as well.

Christy said...

Trooper, sure hope it wasn't Santa Cristina.

EPA is just expanding and solidifying their empire. I shall seek out a California Red on Monday. Any recommendations? I hate merlot. Spent a delightful late summer Sunday afternoon at Dalesios, a favorite restaurant in Baltimore's Little Italy, tasting four or five merlot and never found one I liked. Still, I always bought it by the case for parties. Took a last leftover bottle as a hostess gift to a Christmas party, forgetting said hostess didn't drink. (Widowed due to an unfortunate hot tub drinking incident.) At her next dinner party she served that merlot, and I loved it! What irony.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I better pass this on to my sister. she has a glass or two of whine before and after dinner.

chickelit said...

Lem, if she enjoys a good whine you might make her cranky with the news.

Trooper York said...

I don't think it was Santa Cristina which is one of my favorites. I made the mistake of ordering the large carafe instead of the bottle. It had always been consistent before but this was just messed up.

Trooper York said...

The thing is I had some and was fine. So I don't know if it was the wine. It was the only thing she had before she got they symptoms so I think it could have been the glass.

Chip Ahoy said...

What a bummer.

Chip Ahoy said...

Guinea joint.

Dad Bones said...

Whether it's arsenic, sulfites, or the alcohol itself that's trying to kill us I tend to go easy on my old liver these days.

My body has a built in vice squad that's ready to bust me if I try to get away with too much.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Frequent wine drinkers should be worried!

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

This reminds me of the Simpson's Crepes of Wrath where Bart (as an exchange student in France who ends up enslaved on a vineyard) can only get the French police attention when he describes his enslavers adulterating the wine.