1985 Austrian diethylene glycol wine scandal
The 1985 Austrian diethylene glycol wine scandal (
The scandal was uncovered by wine laboratories performing quality controls on wines sold in West Germany and immediately made headlines worldwide. The affected wines were immediately withdrawn from the market. Many involved in the scandal were sentenced to prison or heavy fines in Austria and West Germany.
The short-term effect of the scandal was a complete collapse of Austrian wine exports and a total loss of reputation of the entire Austrian wine industry, with a significant adverse impact on the reputation of German wines. The long-term effect was that the Austrian wine industry focused their production on other wine types than previously, primarily dry
Background
At the time of the scandal,
The traditional sweet wines of West Germany and
Some Austrian exporters had entered into long-term contracts with
Simple sweetening (also illegal) would not necessarily do the job since it would not sufficiently correct the taste profile of the wine. By using diethylene glycol (DEG), it was possible to affect both the impression of sweetness and the body of the wine. German wine chemists have stated that it is unlikely that an individual winemaker of a small winery had sufficient chemical knowledge to devise the scheme, implying that the recipe must have been drawn up by a knowledgeable wine chemist consulting for a large-scale producer.[4]
Diethylene glycol
DEG was otherwise used as an industrial chemical or as
Discovery
The first wine discovered to contain DEG was a 1983
Market consequences
From mid-July onward, selling Austrian wine on any export market was almost impossible. 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. In many other countries, wine dealers removed Austrian wines from shelves.[9]
From a pre-1985 level of around 45 million liters per year, exports immediately fell to one-tenth or roughly 4.4 million liters in 1986.[8] They stayed at approximately the same level until 1989 and were slightly higher in 1990–97, but still well below pre-1985 levels. Not until 2001 did the export volume, at just over 50 million liters, match the old level.[10] It thus took the Austrian wine industry fifteen years to regain its former position in terms of export volume, despite optimistic predictions from some quarters in Austria that it would all be forgotten in other countries in one year.[3]
Legal consequences
In the weeks following the breaking of the scandal, dozens of wine producers and dealers were arrested by Austrian authorities.
The
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.[8]
Further legal action took place over the coming years across West Germany. Pieroth fought a legal action in the
Pieroth's actions, which did not earn the company any sympathy with the public, were probably not meant as a measure to allow the further selling of adulterated wine but as an attempt to put Pieroth in a position to recover money from customers who had refused to pay their outstanding bills following the scandal. Other courts had ruled in
Destruction of the wine
As a consequence of the scandal, a total of 27,000,000 litres of wine (corresponding to 36 million bottles or seven months' worth of Austria's total wine exports at the pre-1985 level) had to be destroyed by the West German authorities, which had confiscated or otherwise collected the wine. Doing this in an environmentally acceptable way proved challenging because DEG was incompatible with sewage treatment plants. In the end, the wine was disposed of and destroyed by being poured into the ovens of a cement plant as a cooling agent instead of water.[6] In Austria, it was reported that the wine, mixed with other agents, was used as a road antifreeze in the particularly severe continental winter of February to March 1986.
In popular culture
The wine scandal has been the subject of many satirical references to Austrian wine inside Austria, in Germany, and beyond, and long after 1985. Shortly after the scandal, the Styrian bard Volker Schöbitz composed a polka under the rhyming title Zum Wohl, Glykol – "Cheers, glycol".[8] Glykol was also announced to be the 1985 Word of the Year in Germany.[6]
In The Simpsons season 1 episode "The Crepes of Wrath", a reference to the scandal is made when two Frenchmen with whom Bart is staying are arrested after putting antifreeze in wine and making Bart drink it.[14][15]
British rock band Half Man Half Biscuit reference the scandal in the song "RSVP" from their 2011 album 90 Bisodol (Crimond).[citation needed]
See also
- Wine fraud – Fraudulent activity in the commerce of wine
- Elixir sulfanilamide – Another product containing diethylene glycol which similarly led to tighter food and drug laws in the United States
References
- ^ a b c d Sonntagsblitz, July 10, 2005: Im Wein war nicht nur Wahrheit Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine ("In wine was not only truth") (in German)
- ^ Zeit Online, 1985: Die Tricks der Weinmischer Archived 2010-02-06 at the Wayback Machine ("The tricks of the wine mixers") (in German)
- ^ Rust, Austria. p. 1. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
- ^ a b c Zeit Online, 1985: Saure Trauben, süße Sünden ("Sour grapes, sweet sins") (in German)
- S2CID 22023562.
- ^ a b c WDR, July 9, 2005: Vor 20 Jahren: Glykol-Wein-Skandal wird bekannt -Mit Frostschutz gepanscht ("20 years ago: glycol wine scandal comes to noise – adulterated with antifreeze") (in German)
- ^ a b "Wine, Lies and Glycol – the Austrian Antifreeze Scandal".
- ^ a b c d e f Stuttgarter Zeitung, July 6, 2005: "Zum Wohl, Glykol" Archived 2009-12-09 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
- ^ Stübling, H.; Bittner, W. (July 29, 1985). "Adulterated wine: "Nice round and oily" (in German)". Der Spiegel. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
- ^ Wein aus Österreich: Jahresbericht 2009[permanent dead link], p. 6 (in German)
- ^ Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung, 10.07.2008: In vino veritas (in German)
- ^ BVerwGE 87, 37 – Warnung vor Glykolwein (in German)
- Federal Court of Justice of Germany (BGH) Urteil v. 23.11.1988 – VIII ZR 247/87: Abgrenzung zwischen Sachmangel und aliud beim Gattungskauf ("Glykolwein"-Fall) Archived 2005-01-10 at the Wayback Machine(in German)
- ^ "The Crepes of Wrath". simpsonsarchive.com. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
- ^ Lewis, Dan. "Wine and Antifreeze". nowiknow.com. Retrieved 10 May 2021.