by Wine Business International
A recent shipment of New Zealand wines turned away from Germany because of high copper content, has led a prominent New Zealand newspaper to have a selection of the country’s wines tested.
But testing by the Weekend Heraldfound that all ten wines selected were within European limits for copper, apart from the Te Kairanga Pinot Noir, the wine originally rejected.
A 4,000 case shipment of Te Kairanga had been rejected by Germany after it was discovered that the 2.4ppm of copper had breached the European limits of 1 ppm. The Herald quoted Te Kairanga's acting chief Ian Frame as saying it was "no surprise” that the wines had a high level of copper, since copper was added to take away the odours from sulphur compounds produced during winemaking.
The newspaper also quoted Food Safety Authority principal toxicology adviser John Reeve, who said there was no associated health risk, particularly at such low levels. "You would need at least 200-300 parts per million before you got above the acceptable daily intake,” he was reported to have said. "The wine would be blue and it would probably have a metallic taste too.”
Copper is not routinely checked for export certification in New Zealand. The New Zealand Winegrowerssaid that the German market is "pedantic about rules and regulations” and that the addition of copper was a long-standing technique.
