Have a few dry days in the week. 31. [7] The first prison sentence, of one and a half years, followed in mid-October. The 1985 diethylene glycol wine scandal was an incident in which several Austrian wineries illegally adulterated their wines using the toxic substance diethylene glycol (a primary ingredient in some brands of antifreeze) to make the wines appear sweeter and more full-bodied in the style of late harvest wines. After watching this episode of down the rabbit hole the subject of this episode seems like the inspiration for that episode of the Simpsons. [3], In West Germany, following a lengthy investigation, six former leading employees of the wholesale dealer and bottler Pieroth were sentenced to fines of one million Deutsche Marks by the Landgericht in Koblenz in April 1996. On Nov. 12, 1905, Thomas Jackson shared a Sunday morning beer with his wife, Teresa. That's a hell of a rabbit hole alright. I honestly love the range of topics the DTRH series covers, from Cults in Oregon to the ongoing misadventures of Chris chan. Share. Buy the best you can. I'm surprised the poisoning of children's juice got glanced over. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Doing this in an environmentally acceptable way proved to be something of a challenge, because DEG was incompatible with sewage treatment plants. As the sweet wines were more favoured at the time of the scandal than they have been in the 1990s and 2000s, and since the Prädikat designations were almost universally recognized throughout the German-speaking countries, a cheap Auslese or Beerenauslese was often identified as a "bargain" by many German consumers. Many of the contaminated wines weren't from the Austrian wineries that did their own bottling and labeling but the middle-men that sent purchased wine to the big bottlers like Pieroth, a German wine company with over 300 years of history that had $230 million in sales in 1984. [citation needed], "Scandal over poisoned wine embitters village in Austria", "Adulterated wine: "Nice round and oily" (in German)", https://www.simpsonsarchive.com/episodes/7G13.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1985_diethylene_glycol_wine_scandal&oldid=995894575, Articles with German-language sources (de), Articles with dead external links from February 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from May 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 December 2020, at 13:17. Savour the wine. Austria’s proximity to Germany means that many people assume the wines are similar, but they’re not. At home and around the world, more people are buying Austrian wine, proven by a record-breaking year of sales in 2018. Austria’s wines are now highly prized both by wine experts and wine lovers all around the world. The poisonings occurred in the … I love these rabbit holes. Sorry what? Check out this channel's video on the Mouse Utopia. [14][15], British rock band Half Man Half Biscuit reference the scandal in the song "RSVP" from their 2011 album 90 Bisodol (Crimond). ... Lead poisoning from homemade wine: a case study., Environmental Health Perspectives, 10.1289/ehp.01109433, 109, 4, (433-435), (2001). The long-term effect was that the Austrian wine industry focused their production on other wine types than previously, primarily dry white wines instead of sweet wines, and increasingly targeted a higher market segment, but it took the Austrian wine industry over a decade to recover. The Austrian Wine Poisoning | Down the Rabbit Hole. 10 years for a decade of retards. A number of people involved in the scandal were sentenced to prison or heavy fines in Austria and West Germany. The best place for video content of all kinds. [5] Most of the recalled wines contained up to a few grams of DEG per litre (and many only a fraction of a gram), which meant that dozens of bottles would have to be consumed in a limited period of time to reach the lethal dose of approximately 40 grams. After watching this episode of down the rabbit hole the subject of this episode seems like the inspiration for that episode of the Simpsons. It is believed that when this led to insufficient quantities of wine being available to fulfill the contracts, some producers started to search for methods, including illegal ones, to "correct" the wines. The scandal was uncovered by wine laboratories performing quality controls on wines sold in West Germany, and immediately made headlines around the world. During the mid-1980s, a discovery is made about Austria’s wine that threatens to destroy the country’s entire industry. “Shortly after both dropped to the floor,” The Vancouver World reported the next day. Many of these Austrian wines were exported to West Germany, some … dry, etc), as well as the official Federal Inspection Number and name of the producer or bottler.. Today, we lean towards an Australian red wine that is a bit more muscular than your typical Pinot. Pin. Overview of Austrian Wine Production. The wine is a potent palm liquor distilled from coconut sap with an alcohol content of up to 40% to 45% by volume. In April 2003, 16 members of Gustaf Adolph Evangelical Lutheran Church in the small farming community of New Sweden, Maine, fell gravely ill after a meeting where they'd had coffee brewed in an urn. Hell yeah, thanks for reminding me of this channel. The next step, he said, was to supply the data to a law firm. [3], By itself, simple sweetening (also illegal) would not necessarily do the job, since it would not sufficiently correct the taste profile of the wine. However, it's best to avoid green-colored skin or potatoes that taste bitter (both signs of high solanine content). Some countries like Switzerland and France confiscated thousands of bottles, and Japan introduced a ban on the import and sale of all Austrian wines on July 29, 1985, and in many other countries Austrian wines were removed from shelves by wine dealers. Propaganda departments was still a thing in the 80's? He's now on episode 22. Please read the sidebar below for our rules. New; 7:32. He puts a lot of work into his research and covers some unique topics. GruV, an acidic white grape characteristically described by white pepper, green apple and citrus. The product of these influences is an early spring followed by a long growing season that is warm and dry – so dry that vineyards on rocky soils require irrigation. [8] Many of the adulterated wines were found to originate in Wagram in Lower Austria, where a consulting wine chemist was prosecuted. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fredrikknudsen. Although small in size Austria produces some of the finest wines in the world, not widely available online these wines are select gems. At these facilities, some Austrian wines were illegally blended into German wines by the importers, resulting in diethylene glycol ending up in some bulk-bottled West German wines as well.[2]. Austrian wines are mostly dry white wines, though some sweeter white wines are also produced. There are many good red wine brands making ripping Pinots in Australia, and they can be made in so many marvellous ways. However, in one record-setting wine (a 1981 Welschriesling Beerenauslese from Burgenland) 48 grams per litre was detected, which meant that the consumption of a single bottle could have been lethal. One vintage plagued by these problems in Austria was 1982. Gene Ray's time cube will always be my favorite. Thus, the production of wines at higher Prädikat levels tends to vary from year to year depending on vintage conditions, and all wines with higher designations sell at a premium price. Austria makes less than one percent of all the wine in the world —about 28 million cases a year. Lead intoxication has been reported to occur as a consequence of nonoccupational exposure, the source being mostly the leaching of lead from fluid containers in domestic use. [8] Glykol was also announced to be the 1985 Word of the Year in Germany. Though Austria is largely known for producing outstanding white wines, more than one-third of the country’s vineyards, or nearly 39,000 acres, are planted to red grapes. About 30% of the wines are red, made from Blaufränkisch, Pinot noir and locally bred varieties such as Zweigelt. "—Mark Mendoza (Coi / … The wine label must contain the following information; origin, variety, vintage, quality designation, alcohol content by volume, reference to its residual sugars (i.e. I had honestly never known of this before. [8] They stayed at approximately the same level until 1989, and were slightly higher in 1990–97, but still well below pre-1985 levels. [6], The wine scandal has been the subject of many satirical references to Austrian wine, both inside Austria, in Germany and beyond, and lasting long after 1985. [1], From mid-July onwards, it was almost impossible to sell Austrian wine on any export market. The 1985 diethylene glycol wine scandal was an incident in which several Austrian wineries illegally adulterated their wines using the toxic substance diethylene glycol (a primary ingredient in some brands of antifreeze) to make the wines appear sweeter and more full-bodied in the style of late harvest wines. The Austrian Wine Poisoning | Down the Rabbit Hole; Politics . Buy half bottles (or decant half the wine into an empty half bottle. TIL. 1985 diethylene glycol wine scandal. Adulteration of products with DEG has led to thousands of deaths worldwide since the first recorded case: the Elixir sulfanilamide incident in 1937. Four thousand years of winemaking history counted for little after the "antifreeze scandal" of 1985, when it was revealed that some wine brokers had been adulterating their wines with diethylene glycol. Develop a taste for German and Austrian wines which can be as low as 7% ABV. Not named PR? Drink wine with food and water. 0 Shares. At the time of the scandal, West Germany was the most important export market for Austrian wine and had been so for a number of years, with an increasing trend. April 25, 2020 admin documentary. Oh yeah. Ryan Probert - Down the Rabbit Hole - Feelin' un-owl (The Austrian Wine Poisoning) - Duration: 7:32. The Austrian Wine Poisoning | Down the Rabbit Hole. In the end, the wine was destroyed by being poured into the ovens of a cement plant as a cooling agent instead of water. ProbeComposer 5 views. [9], From a pre-1985 level of around 45 million liters per year, exports immediately fell to one-tenth, or around 4.4 million liters in 1986. They can be complex and spicy, elegant and floral or even just juicy and smashable; their versatility makes them one of the best Australian red wines you can buy. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. tl;dw. Pieroth fought a legal action in the administrative courts in order to try to establish that the Federal Minister for Youth, Family and Health, Heiner Geißler (CDU) had exceeded his authority when his ministry had issued a blacklist containing all wines that had been found to contain DEG, and naming the bottler in each case. Austria is a small country by wine-making standards, it accounts for less than 1% of a total world wine production with 46,000 hectares planted overall. CBS News. Most of the wines come from small wineries. [3], In the weeks following the breaking of the scandal, several dozens of wine producers and wine dealers were arrested by Austrian authorities. [3][4] The Austrian wines exported to West Germany were of a similar style to those produced by West Germany itself, meaning semi-sweet and sweet white wines. One of the best youtube documentaries I've seen constantly engaging and something I've never heard of, very high stakes, very well done. Crossref. Damn informative! At the levels of ripeness that were reached, the wines would be less sweet, less full-bodied and more acidic. Also, long-term consumption of DEG is known to damage the kidney, liver and brain. By using diethylene glycol (DEG), it was possible to affect both the impression of sweetness and the body of the wine. An Auckland Hello Fresh customer says he is disappointed in the meal kit provider’s “terrible” customer service after he discovered plastic in its mince. The scandal destroyed the market for Austrian wine … [4][7] Domestic wine fraud involving illegal sweetening had occurred earlier in West Germany, and had led to investigations and prosecution of the winemakers involved. We are delighted that you have chosen to visit our Austrian wine website. "Wine with brats: I would pour a fairly fruit driven Austrian Gruner Veltliner, something that has a pretty rich stone fruit component with smoky, white pepper notes. Shortly after the scandal, the Styrian bard Volker Schöbitz composed a polka under the rhyming title Zum Wohl, Glykol - "Cheers, glycol". The case went through all three tiers of the administrative courts, and was finally settled on October 18, 1990, when the Federal Administrative Court of Germany ruled against Pieroth and found that Geißler had the right to issue the list.[12]. [4], DEG was otherwise used as an industrial chemical or as antifreeze, although ethylene glycol is more common for that application. The affected wines were immediately withdrawn from the market. Gustaf Adolph Evangelical Church in New Sweden, Maine. Press J to jump to the feed. The traditional sweet wines of West Germany and Austria are produced from late harvest grapes, some of them affected by noble rot, and labelled in a hierarchy of Prädikat designations from Kabinett to Trockenbeerenauslese, depending on the ripeness of the grapes. Austrian Wine is Not What You Expect. 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