On Tue, 8 Aug 2006, David (in Normandy) wrote:

Sodium metabisul ATE is a highly acid substance and is akin to solid
sulphuric acid and is nasty if you eat it. It's the main constituent of
some solid toilet cleaners.
I can guess that the French shove the latter in their wine.


Only if they run out of anti-freeze :-)

Antifreeze was used in a highly publicised case more than twenty years
ago by a combine just outside Rust on the Neusiedler See in Austria in
order to sweeten the wine. The local small wine growers were outraged by
this and put up posters saying that their wine was good and did NOT
contain antifreeze. I still have one of these posters somewhere.

The net result of this was that Austrian wine was not imported to the UK
(and several other countries) for years afterwards which was a great
pity as they have some great wines which are totally different to any
others. Even a grape like Müller-Thurgau produces a very sweet wine in
Austria and quite different to that produced by the same grape in, for
instance, the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer area of Germany. Also they have their own
grape varieties not found elsewhere such as Grüner Veldliner and
Welschriesling (which, in spite of the name, is not a Riesling at all).

David

--
David Rance http://www.mesnil.demon.co.uk
Fido Address: 2:252/110 writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France