Has Your Vernon Wine Retailer Heard That 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.

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