Arsenic and other issues

We taste and have wines on our shelves here at the dinner party that range from the very inexpensive - around $10 per bottle - to prices many of us would find unreasonable to pay for a single bottle of wine. There are customers and markets for all of them. It goes without saying that much more care, attention, and quality goes into premium bottles of wine than the value priced ones. From farming methods and crop levels, to the time wines spend in barrels and fermenters, all have an impact on what a bottle costs to produce, and ultimately the quality of the end product.

Recent research by very reputable organizations and labs found elevated levels of arsenic in some wines from California. As reported in The Coeur d'Alene Press last Sunday, over 1,300 different bottles were tested and elevated arsenic levels were found in 83 of them. The results were cross-tested at two other labs to confirm the results. Here is the most striking part of the research to me. The 83 that showed elevated arsenic levels, up to four times the level allowed in drinking water, were all priced under $10 at the retail level. It was also determined that the arsenic was not organically occurring - in other words, it was introduced at some point in the growing or vinting process.

For all wine consumers, it comes down to getting what you paid for and whether each of those bottles meets your expectations for the money spent. Wines that retail under $10 do not receive the same caliber of fruit nor care in the cellar that more expensive bottles do, the economic math just does not work that way. In short, there is a reason "two buck chuck" is priced at that level. Vineyards for this caliber of wine are heavily cropped and are located in the Central Valley of California, not Napa; and the harvest is done by machines, gathering up all types of unintended flora and fauna that frequently end up in the fermenter with the grapes.

Short cuts are also taken in the winemaking process; fermentation is frequently sped up by using fast-acting yeast strains and other chemicals. Wine grapes are pressed to extract every possible drop of juice, and rather than oak barrel ageing, the wines are aged briefly in large vats with old barrel staves and oak chips floating in the wine. This enables the producers of these low-priced wines to get them quickly to the market, minimizing the investment in the cellar.

The non-wine parts of the manufacturing and bottling process are easy to estimate. A glass bottle costs about $1, the closure on the bottle - whether it is real cork, synthetic cork, or twist cap - is around 50 cents, and labels are about 25 cents each. Granted, huge producers of bulk wines that retail under $10 are likely getting a bit better pricing than that, but if you have $1 - $2 in bottling cost and profit for retailers and distributors before you even buy grapes and produce the wine, it leaves little money to spend on quality winemaking. It is not surprising that chemicals or processes may be employed to drive down costs that could result in the aforementioned arsenic, or other unintended chemicals. And if it is happening in California, it is not a leap to suspect the same thing is going on other places where this low-caliber wine is made.

We hear from folks that wines like "two buck chuck" and other low-priced private label wines sold at big box and grocery stores taste just fine. They may. But at what cost to those consuming them, given the presence of what can only be judged as some pretty harsh and dangerous chemicals.

We stock wines around $10, as every customer's wine budget is different, but when we do, we focus on wines that are the entry-level bottling from reputable producers we know well and trust. We also pick up wines that are being closed out or discounted by the distributors to get them in consumer's hands at those prices. The easiest way to avoid consuming wines of questionable lineage and production is to always avoid private label items where the end producer is concealed, and be willing to spend a bit more to avoid exposure to some things that should not be included in wine.

The advice of a trusted wine professional is a benefit too. We know the winemakers on many of the bottles we sell personally, and when we don't, our distributor salespeople help fill in the information needed to make certain we are only buying wines for our shelves that are handled properly throughout the manufacturing process.

If there is a topic you would like to read about or questions on wine you can email george@thedinnerpartyshop.com, or make suggestions by contacting the Healthy Community section at the Coeur d'Alene Press.

George Balling is co-owner (with his wife Mary Lancaster) of the dinner party - a wine and tabletop decor shop in Coeur d'Alene by Costco. George has also worked as a judge in many wine competitions and his articles are published around the country. You can learn more about the dinner party at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com. You can get all of these articles, as well as other great wine tips, by friending us on Facebook www.facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.