I wrote an article recently on a new German wine testing technique which claimed to uncover an illegal chemical called natamycin in some Argentinian wine. I was alerted to this by Naked Wines from whom I previously purchased some wine which may have been affected.

Not only have Naked Wines analysed their wine and found almost all of it to be free of the Chemical in question (aka E235) as an additive, they have released a comprehensive statement giving the customer full confidence in their service -

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- We have had 100% of our Argentinean and South African wines (88 in all) tested Natamycin by http://www.fera.defra.gov.uk/.
- 87/88 wines were clear of natamycin
- The Food Standards Agency has issued guidance saying Analysis results to date reveal that this is present in small quantities, less than 0.5 mg/kg, and a risk assessment conducted by the FSA has concluded that this presents negligible risk to health

The one wine that did have traces was a Torrontes from Mauricio Lorca, which was measured as containing 1/180th of the allowable daily intake. Having discussed this with Mauricio (who by the way is a very straight guy) and Wines of Argentina, the Argentine trade body, I am comfortable that these traces are from a cleaning agent used to clean the winery rather than an additive. I have not tried drinking 180 bottles of his wines a day, but I feel very confident that if you did, Natamycin would be the least of your concerns! But, if you are concerned and would like a refund, please do call us and we will be pleased to do so.

From now on we will be testing all wines for natamycin before they are imported. In the meantime we will label all Argentinean wines either tested nm free or contains E235 so that you can see which is which
...

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I have not been aware of any other wine merchant publicly warning customers of this possibility and testing their wine.

If only the wine industry as a whole was this open and thorough.

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