In 1985, Austrian winemakers faced a problem: Their wines weren't sweet enough for the German market's taste. Rather than adding corn syrup like normal criminals, they mixed in diethylene glycol, aka antifreeze. The chemical made wines taste sweeter and fuller-bodied while adding that special je ne sais quoi of potential organ failure.
A 1985 New York Times article said the tainted wine was initially a hit with critics:
Apparently, the trick fooled even the experts. At last year's wine fair in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, a leading industry event, a Beerenauslese by Hans Sautner of Gols, spiked with glycol, took a gold medal. Adolf Schwaab, a wine judge from Krems, another wine-making town, told a Viennese newspaper he "wondered where some of the growers' wines got that much body."
I imagine the review went something like this:
This audacious Beerenauslese presents with remarkable viscosity and an unexpected mechanical sweetness. Notes of radiator fluid give way to hints of engine block, with a surprisingly finish — you're in the emergency room. The mouthfeel is exceptionally smooth, particularly as it strips away your kidney function. Pairs well with dialysis.
The scheme worked brilliantly until those meddling German wine labs next door started testing the products. One bottle from Burgenland packed enough diethylene glycol to kill someone in a single sitting.
As The New York Times reported at the time, the discovery sent Austria's wine industry into a death spiral. Exports crashed 90%, and dozens of winemakers were sent to prison. One convicted winemaker took his own life after being sentenced.
The mastermind behind the deadly adulteration scheme was a 58-year-old chemist named Otto Nadrasky, who supplied the toxic recipe to desperate winemakers who needed to fulfill contracts for sweet wines after bad harvests.
The scandal devastated Austria's wine industry – 27 million liters (36 million bottles) had to be destroyed. In Germany, they ended up pouring the tainted wine into cement factory ovens as a cooling agent because sewage treatment plants couldn't handle the diethylene glycol. In Austria, they used it as road antifreeze during a particularly harsh winter.
Austrian wine exports collapsed to one-tenth of their previous level and took a decade to recover. Today, Austrian winemakers have abandoned their sweet wine tradition, focusing on crisp, dry whites instead.
Apparently, nothing kills a country's enthusiasm for sweet wines quite like an antifreeze scandal.
Previously:
• These wine descriptions are perfectly absurd!
• Wine-swigging swimming teacher banned
• Why 'traditional' wine is inherently bullshit
