Word: wined
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Italy's tainted-wine scandal con- tinued to spread in ugly fashion last week. More than five weeks after a number of vintners were first discovered to be adulterating their low-priced table wines with methyl alcohol, which is more commonly used as a paint solvent, at least 22 Italians had died and about 90 others were hospitalized after drinking the contaminated product. As the death toll rose, the Italian government listed some 300 labels as suspect, prompting worldwide concern and threatening the country's $953 million wine-export trade...
...where some 73 million gal. of Italian wine are imported every year and sales have been booming, federal officials warned wholesalers and importers not to distribute any Italian wines until samples could be tested for methyl alcohol. Then the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms advised drinkers not to touch Italian wines until tests showed that they were not contaminated. The Italian embassy emphasized that the only products that had so far been discovered to be tainted were cheap varieties that sold in Italy for about...
Italy's commercial counselor in Washington, Gerardo Carante, said that only six of the Italian firms whose wines are suspected of being contaminated have shipped products to the U.S.* Nonetheless, BATF Director Stephen Higgins announced that all Italian wine entering this country would have to carry a certificate of purity that the Italian government has begun issuing for bottles cleared for export. Shipments that left Italy before the Rome government began requiring the certificates would be prohibited from entering U.S. markets...
...BATF's warnings prompted many wine sellers across the nation to remove Italian products from their shelves immediately. Among them was Oakland-based Safeway Stores, which sells wine in some 1,200 supermarkets and 104 Liquor Barn stores. Said Safeway Spokeswoman Felicia del Campo: "Nobody could assure us that none of the adulterated wines had reached the U.S." Many other retailers resisted the move, however, pointing out that they did not sell low- grade products or citing confidence in their own distribution systems. Said Louis Iacucci, president of Goldstar Wines & Spirits of Queens, N.Y., the nation's single largest retailer...
Yuppies beware! The pricey European food products favored by young urban professionals may soon become even dearer. President Reagan threatened last week to slap new quotas and tariffs on such imports as French white wine, Perrier water, Heineken beer, Guinness stout, Swiss and blue cheese, and Belgian chocolates. The curbs will be phased in beginning May 1 unless the European Community rescinds restrictions imposed last month on $1 billion worth of imports of U.S. soybeans, corn and other agricultural products. Says Secretary of State George Shultz: "If we can't work something out, then we've got to fight...