Arsenic and lead in old wine

[jdaw1]

Bottles of champagne salvaged from a 170-year-old shipwreck have been tested in the lab by scientists seeking clues about historic winemaking methods.

Among the results were very high levels of sugar - higher than most modern dessert wine - and traces of arsenic.
…
As part of their analysis, Prof Jeandet's team found the wine's composition was surprisingly similar to the modern samples, with some notable differences.

To begin with, there weren't many bubbles left. "The CO2 remaining was less than 2g per litre. If you compare to normal champagne - the CO2 in a bottle is around 10-11g per litre," Prof Jeandet said.

This was probably because the gas gradually escaped through the corks, he added.
…
"But this champagne is very different, especially with regard to sugar level."

At more than 14%, the sugar content was "astonishingly high", Prof Waterhouse said - higher than most dessert wines today. But it appears to have been sold, much as it is today, to be drunk at receptions and celebrations.

"It points out how different the tastes were back then."

Consumers in the UK and the US, particularly, have driven the sugar content down over the years. Even in the 19th Century, Prof Jeandet said, tastes on the continent were much sweeter - and these Baltic bottles were probably typical.

Prof Waterhouse also pointed out the traces of arsenic the researchers spotted, which may indicate the use of arsenic salts to control pests in the vineyard, as well as surprisingly high levels of lead and iron.

These metals probably came from the barrels used before the wine was bottled, he added. These may have had iron fittings and brass valves, containing lead.

[Andy Velebil]

Reminds me...Port used to have very high levels of something bad as well (which exact is escaping me at the moment, but lead comes to mind). It came from the old fittings used on the large barrels and other pieces of equipment (now stainless steel is used). Canada has rejected importation of old Tawny's for having excessive levels.

[jdaw1]

It was lead. The brass fitting are about 2% lead, and having port resting against 2% lead for a few decades causes unhappiness. Definitely, definitely, children under 5 years old should not consume large quantities of old Port.

[Glenn E.]

It was lead. The brass fitting are about 2% lead, and having port resting against 2% lead for a few decades causes unhappiness. Definitely, definitely, children under 5 years old should not consume large quantities of old Port.

My ulterior motive spidey-sense is tingling...

[DRT]

I'm down to my last pipe of 1840 and I'm fairly sure it isn't made of lead.

[Andy Velebil]

I'm down to my last pipe of 1840 and I'm fairly sure it isn't made of lead.

You better share the rest to keep your levels down.

[uncle tom]

My grandfather was a poisons specialist at Barts hospital in London, who banged on about the perils of Lead as a cumulative toxin in the environment.

Arsenic, on the hand, intrigued him - whilst highly toxic when suddenly exposed to it, he noted that some people with constant low exposure to Arsenic could build up levels in their bodies that were theoretically lethal, but with no evident ill-effect..

[LGTrotter]

They used to give arsenic to racehorses to make their coats sleek and it is supposed to give sleek hair and a clear complexion to men. It's one of the plots in the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries.

I worry that one day I will be required to sign a piece of paper to say that I am planning to use bottles of wine as ormaments rather than drinks in order to get sent my old bottles of claret, which surely contain enough banned pesticides to make them count as toxic waste. But then I remember the lines from 'A Shropshire Lad' and hope for a long life.

There was a king reigned in the East:
There, when kings will sit to feast,
They get their fill before they think
With poisoned meat and poisoned drink.
He gathered all that springs to birth
From the many-venomed earth;
First a little, thence to more,
He sampled all her killing store;
And easy, smiling, seasoned sound,
Sate the king when healths went round.
They put arsenic in his meat
And stared aghast to watch him eat;
They poured strychnine in his cup
And shook to see him drink it up:
They shook, they stared as white's their shirt:
Them it was their poison hurt.
-I tell the tale that I heard told.
Mithridates, he died old.

[DaveRL]

Arsenic consumed is methylated by the body (turned into an organic and safer form) and excreted safely. Gradually increase the dose and the body's methylating mechanism keeps up. Big sudden dose overloads and death nasty. Lots of bleeding. Arsenic doesn't cause cancer in itself, but will increase cancer rates from such as smoking. A co-factor. Used as a pesticide in late 1800s, early 1900s. Devon Great Consols mine near Tavistock was a massive producer after the copper ran out. Heated arsenopyrite ore and dirty arsenic oxide sublimes off onto calciner walls which was scraped off and refined. Used on crops. So vines also I suppose.

[djewesbury]

I believe the Wimsey mystery Owen refers to is Strong Poison, the book in which Harriet Vane is first introduced.