Has Your Wine Retailer Heard These Wines May Contain Poisonous Arsenic?

By Feroze Dhanoa (Patch Staff)

A class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in California claims that many inexpensive brands of wine contain illegal and dangerously high levels of poisonous inorganic arsenic.

It’s been just one day since reports of the lawsuit made its rounds on social media, however, the news still hasn’t spread far and wide and chances are your local Connecticut wine retailer might not even have heard of it.

Franzia, Menage a Trois, Sutter Home, Wine Cube, Charles Shaw, Glen Ellen, Cupcake, Beringer and Vendage are some of the popular brand names cited in the lawsuit, according to court documents.

We called 10 local wine stores in Connecticut that included stores in Newtown, Milford, Darien, West Hartford, Greenwich, Danbury, Ridgefield and Wilton. Out of the 10 stores, only three had heard of the class-action lawsuit.

Fairgrounds Wine and Spirits in Danbury had heard about the claims, however, the wine manager at the store wouldn’t comment any further.

Jeff Troop, the manager at Loading Dock Wine and Spirits in Milford, said he was interested in talking to his distributor about the claims. Troop said it was too early to tell what impact this would have on sales.

A representative from Maximum Beverage in West Hartford said he had just heard about the claims in the last hour.

Call your local retailer to see if they have heard about the claims and what their course of action may be.

Court documents allege three separate testing laboratories skilled in arsenic testing each confirmed that several California wineries are producing wines with high levels of the toxin, ”in some cases, up to 500 percent or more than what is considered the maximum acceptable safe daily intake limit.”

Before you head out to the liquor store Friday night, keep in mind these wines specifically cited in the lawsuit:

1. Acronym’s GR8RW Red Blend 2011
2. Almaden’s Heritage White Zinfandel
3. Almaden’s Heritage Moscato
4. Almaden’s Heritage White Zinfandel
5. Almaden’s Heritage Chardonnay
6. Almaden’s Mountain Burgundy
7. Almaden’s Mountain Rhine
8. Almaden’s Mountain Chablis
9. Arrow Creek’s Coastal Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2011
10. Bandit’s Pinot Grigio
11. Bandit’s Chardonnay
12. Bandit’s Cabernet Sauvignon
13. Bay Bridge’s Chardonnay
14. Beringer’s White Merlot 2011
15. Beringer’s White Zinfandel 2011
16. Beringer’s Red Moscato
17. Beringer’s Refreshingly Sweet Moscato
18. Charles Shaw White Zinfandel 2012
19. Colores del Sol’s Malbec 2010
20. Glen Ellen by Concannon’s Glen Ellen REserve Pinot Grigio 2012
21. Concannon’s Selected Vineyards Pinot Noir 2011
22. Glen Ellen by Concannon’s Glen Ellen Reserve Merlot 2010
23. Cook’s Spumante
24. Corbett Canyon’s Pinot Grigio
25. Corbett Canyon’s Cabernet Sauvignon
26. Cupcake’s Malbec 2011
27. Fetzer’s Moscato 2010
28. Fetzer’s Pinot Grigio 2011
29. Fisheye Pinot Grigio 2012
30. Flipflop’s Pinot Grigio 2012
31. Flipflop’s Moscato
32. Flipflop’s Cabernet Sauvignon
33. Foxhorn’s White Zinfandel
34. Franzia’s Vintner Select White Grenache
35. Franzia’s Vintner Select White Zinfandel
36. Franzia’s Vintner Select White Merlot
37. Franzia’s Vintner Select Burgundy
38. Hawkstone’s Cabernet Sauvignon 2011
39. HRM Rex Goliath’s Moscato
40. Korbel’s Sweet Rose Sparkling Wine
41. Korbel’s Extra Dry Sparkling Wine
42. Menage a Trois’ Pinot Grigio 2011
43. Menage a Trois’ Moscato 2010
44. Menage a Trois’ White Blend 2011
45. Menage a Trois’ Chardonnay 2011
46. Menage a Trois’ Rose 2011
47. Menage a Trois’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2010
48. Menage a Trois’ California Red Wine 2011
49. Mogen David’s Concord
50. Mogen David’s Blackberry Wine
51. Oak Leaf’s White Zinfandel
52. Pomelo’s Sauvignon Blanc 2011
53. R Collection by Raymond’s Chardonnay 2012
54. Richards Wild Irish Rose’s Red Wine
55. Seaglass’s Sauvignon Blanc 2012
56. Simply Naked’s Moscato 2011
57. Smoking Loon’s Viognier 2011
58. Sutter Home’s Sauvignon Blanc 2010
59. Sutter Home’s Gewurztraminer 2011
60. Sutter Home’s Pink Moscato
61. Sutter Home’s Pinot Grigio 2011
62. Sutter Home’s Moscato
63. Sutter Home’s Chenin Blanc 2011
64. Sutter Home’s Sweet Red 2010
65. Sutter Home’s Riesling 2011
66. Sutter Home’s White Merlot 2011
67. Sutter Home’s Merlot 2011
68. Sutter Home’s White Zinfandel 2011
69. Sutter Home’s White Zinfandel 2012
70. Sutter Home’s Zinfandel 2010
71. Trapiche’s Malbec 2012
72. Tribuno’s Sweet Vermouth
73. Vendange’s Merlot
74. Vendange’s White Zinfandel
75. Wine Cube’s Moscato
76. Wine Cube’s Pink Moscato 2011
77. Wine Cube’s Pinot Grigio 2011
78. Wine Cube’s Pinot Grigio
79. Wine Cube’s Chardonnay 2011
80. Wine Cube’s Chardonnay
81. Wine Cube’s Red Sangria
82. Wine Cube’s Sauvignon Blanc 2011
83. Wine Cube’s Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz 2011

Note: Any wines listed without specific years are non-vintage, meaning the grapes used did not come from a single year.

Picture: Patch file photo