Ask the WC 11: Arsenic lawsuit, marijuana, wine competitions

arsenic lawsuitBecause the customers always have questions, and the Wine Curmudgeon has answers in this irregular feature. Ask the Wine Curmudgeon wine-related question . This time: Whatever happened to the arsenic lawsuit?

Dear Wine Curmudgeon:
Whatever happened to that arsenic thing, where all the cheap you recommend was going to kill us because it was full of arsenic?
Drinking expensive wine to be safe

Dear Expensive:
The lawsuit you refer to faded away. First, arsenic occurs naturally in many food products, so what was found in wine – cheap or expensive – was there in tiny, tiny amounts. Second, a California state judge dismissed the lawsuit that had been filed against two dozen California wineries, saying that the warning label on wine bottles was sufficient to protect consumers. So you can go back to cheap wine and save yourself some serious money.

Hi, WC:
You write that legal marijuana could pose a serious challenge to wine consumption in the U.S. Why do you think that? One high is as good as another, isn’t it?
High on life

Dear High:
Most wine drinkers, according to the statistics and the experts, drink wine instead of something else. It’s the same for beer and spirits drinkers, too. Most of us pick one kind of alcohol and stick with it. The fear is that, if legal dope becomes widespread, wine drinkers will opt for pot. This makes sense if only from a pricing model. Legal grass isn’t cheap – more than $200 an ounce in Colorado; if you’re spending that much money on weed, why would you need (or want) to spend anything else on wine?

Hello, Wine Curmudgeon:
You’re always writing about judging wine competitions. Why does that matter to those of us who read your blog? Why should I care about awards?
Confused in Connecticut

Dear Confused:
That’s the question that the wine competition business has been asking itself for the past couple of years. Are competitions relevant? Do ordinary wine drinkers pay attention to the results? The best competitions have renewed their efforts so that the first is true and you can learn something from the results. A gold medal wine, particularly if it costs less than $15, should be a tremendous value and well worth buying. I’d look at the list of judges, which most competitions post on their websites. If the judges seem to know what they’re doing, you should be in good hands.

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One thought on “Ask the WC 11: Arsenic lawsuit, marijuana, wine competitions

  • By Mark.L - Reply

    In my opinion, wine and weed have a different consumer. I think people only use one, not both of them( I mean if they addictive to it).

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