Tuesday 9 March 2010

Wine in deep do-do


Once again Wine is in deep do-do.Article Posted: Saturday October 17thArticle last updated on: Saturday October 17th
Once again Wine is in deep do-do. By Antony le Ray-Cook Oct 09 Television in- France 2 has alleged that wine is full of pesticides, which according to the non-pros can lead to illness. The wine industry has slammed a French television report on pesticides in wine as 'misleading'.
The programme said pesticide traces in wine may lead to illness. It also described the use of non indigenous yeasts in fermentation and the addition of sugar (chaptalisation) as unnatural.
'Wine, is it still a natural product?' was viewed by millions in France Jean-Louis Salies, president of the Comité National des Interprofessions des Vins " Appellation d'Origine (CNIV) expressed 'profound anger' at the report. His thoughts are enjoined by Wine & Dine plus millions of pros.
In an 8 October letter to France 2, obtained by decanter.com, he wrote, 'Pesticide use has dramatically dropped in the last ten years. Any residual pesticide in glass is subject to maximum limits.'
In the programme Ghislain de Montgolfier of Champagne Bollinger admits there are traces of pesticides in wine, but they would be harmful only if consumed in massive amounts.
'So I would not advise you to drink more than 150 bottles of Champagne per day,' he joked. Try as I might 150 bottles a day is just a little much for a grown man! M. de Montgolfier later explained to decanter.com pesticide levels in wine must be 'within limits for wine and wine grapes established by the World Health Organisation' and so 'the programme was totally misleading.'
'This was a programme made by non-professionals to scare non-professionals,' Diane Flamand, oenologist with Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), told decanter.com.
'What shocked me is that they did not address lutte raisonée [a system of using pesticides 'within reasonable limits': less often and less aggressively]; excessive pesticide use was a problem 15 years ago, but not today.'



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