The Austrian Wine Poisoning | Down the Rabbit Hole

[@FredrikKnudsen]

The music for this episode is all available for listening on the composer's channel. My personal favorite is from section 4, but all of the others are there, as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2Snm5-qrtepr9k For those who want to learn more, much of the information for this episode comes from German sources that are left untranslated. The two sources used the most were "Wine Scandal" by Fritz Hallgarten (in English) and "Der Weinskandal: Das Ende einer unseligen Wirtschaftsentwicklung" by Walter Brüders (in German). Many of the others come from contemporary news reports, both in German and English, but chiefly the former. I was fortunate enough to know someone willing to spend the time reading through these sources and collecting information.

[@jacobbell3720]

I binged watched all of this series the past few days and was so excited to see this new one pop up today. They’re all so amazingly well done. Great work and thank you.

[@respies30]

thanks fred

[@anonofpeace6788]

What happened to your Rajneeshpuram video? Did it get taken down, or did you remove it yourself?

[@connorpickens7523]

Fredrik Knudsen If I may ask, Fredrik, what is your nationality? I can't pin your accent and your pronunciation of German is very good. It's puzzling, to be honest.

[@nickh4354]

@@anonofpeace6788 he posted the other day about that. The group he criticises in the video (can't remember their name) copyright claimed some of the footage in the video. Probably to try and keep their actions under wraps as much as possible

[@actionpants3138]

“Symptoms of poisoned wines are dizziness and vomiting” Well shit no wonder it took so long to figure this out

[@officialromanhours]

How inconviententnenentententnet.

[@User-1939t9]

the only difference is that one works faster than the other

[@darklegion3693]

@@User-1939t9 yeah but some people wouldnt even know.

[@elbozo5723]

it took me longer than it shouldve to get that joke

[@None-Trick_Pony]

@@elbozo5723 I got the hangover part immediately, but it took way too long to click. I spent a good ten to fifteen seconds trying to figure it out.

[@antonydrossos5719]

Hats off to that "Mystery man" whistle-blower. No knowing how many lives he may have saved.

[@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick]

Antony Drossos There’s always an anonymous Good Samaritan in stories like these.

[@mr.dalerobinson]

That’s why many governments have increased persecution against whistleblowers. As seen in the video, the government will work for commercial interests even if its against the people’s. It’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s somebody’s business plan

[@Shotblur]

@@mr.dalerobinson Businesses are conspiracies. They're conspiracies to generate profit. Look up the definition of conspiracy.

[@runeanonymous9760]

Dale Robinson I mean, they’re mostly motivated less by corporate whistleblowers, and more government ones? Like, while they *dislike* reduced commerce, they *hate* reduced faith in their authority, which is what they more harshly prosecute.

[@spekticat]

I'm guessing they were a time-traveller of some kind ^^

[@sanspeakrus]

"I'm fine now" said a man with no liver who was pronounced dead by the press.

[@mangckyatmamon]

they have a level 3 necromancer on the payroll

[@ghoulbuster1]

he's fine he is now a skeleton

[@Sandux930]

Lol news has always been shit

[@julianstraub8766]

Once you’ve gotten rid of a major organ and survived, you are _basically_ immortal. That’s just how things work.

[@ADistantWail]

That's what happened to me. Lost pretty much all me meat in the battle of Guam. I was only able to salvage my protruding milk balls and my droopy gauged flappers, but they were enough to prevent me from fully becoming a naked walking skeletonion.

[@Cheesypotato57]

"If we add sugar to the wine, we have to label it as such and we'll look cheap!" "That's okay, let's add this poorly understood chemical as an alternative sweetener instead." "Oh no, the chemical metabolises into toxins!" "That's okay, ethanol in the wine inhibits this." "Oh no, something else in the wine has the opposite effect!" "What is it?" "Sugar."

[@GirtheAlienGoldfish]

A chain reaction of bad decisions.

[@solarisveritatis1086]

Actually there are laws against that, and sugar add after fermentation will not create the distinctive thickness, smell or taste of Pradikatswein, and will be detected easily

[@__Razer]

Isn't it likely that the consumer would consume foods with the wine that contains sugar?

[@jesuschrist2612]

@@solarisveritatis1086 Ehrenmann

[@BoleDaPole]

Its the governments fault for requiring them to label that its added sugar.

[@arcticdino1650]

"It's not our fault that people were poisoned, it's the people's fault for buying our poisoned wine" What are they, supervillains?

[@CanIswearinmyhandle]

That's capitalism babey

[@OccasionalNASCARRaces]

I've always found Europeans to be far more brash and blatant in their corruption than us Americans. I appreciate that.

[@przemysawzanko6700]

Just capitalists.

[@catarinamelchiorgomes8750]

@@CanIswearinmyhandle whatever, yank

[@redfatass]

It's like saying "lmao its not my fault I gave people corona in the supermarket, it's their fault for getting infected"

[@alexbenavidez4500]

Japan and China banning Australian wine due to getting the names mixed up is honestly the funniest part about this.

[@calmgoodfire4662]

Imagine if this happened during the ww2 and Japan declares war on Austria instead of Australia

[@mine2fs251]

@@calmgoodfire4662 austria didn't exist in WW2, it was part of Nazi Germany

[@Walkth15way]

"Not the shiraz"

[@wasumyon6147]

I thought he was talking about Australian wine too before I watched tbh.

[@AntonioCunningham]

@@wasumyon6147 So did I. I didn't know these places were different.

[@zacharyparker995]

I admire your quest to cover every mass poisoning.

[@AnomalySource]

Zachary Parker ha

[@viesturssilins858]

@Egg T I wonder, are you a bot, or just someone who has been hit really hard by the enforced quarantine and isolation?

[@Mngalahad]

the way in which chris chan poisoned the internet was a good start.

[@beruman]

maybe he is trying to tell us something

[@YoUtUbEhAnDlEsArEgReAt]

Expect a new video in July :)

[@christschess7069]

A fun note about the similarity of Austria's and Australia's name: Australia actually has an official postal stamp to send letters to Austria which have been wrongly sent to Australia instead.

[@KlaxontheImpailr]

On a similar note, Slovakia and Slovenia have a meeting every month to swap misaddressed mail.

[@Joe_Potts]

@@unnhkp8mza522 amazon has to get to these places somehow lol

[@davejones9469]

When my dad was in the Canadian navy in the 70s, he exchanged Canadian Tire money for Lira...told them the man with the kilt was our PM lol. He changed about 2$ into equal to about 300 US, because Canadian Tire money are bills worth cents lol.

[@bb-je1tt]

@@davejones9469Well that’s pretty fucked up, your dad just scammed the dude

[@davejones9469]

@@bb-je1tt You have to change currency at an official exchange, he didn't scam an individual dumbass. How dare you insinuate my dad is some kind of con man.

[@913kaixa]

What I love about Fredrik Knudsen is that he uses the same tone of voice for describing glycol poisoning as he does for reciting the angry Facebook messages of an angry cat cafe owner roleplaying as her cats.

[@elizabethsullivan1894]

We have no cats, Kathleen!

[@OmniSonic]

Drink, drink, DEAD

[@revstalker7334]

Well he's a documentary youtuber. He literally tries to present the topic as objectively as possible while trying to maintain an aura of seriousness about the topic, to the point where a topic that you would laugh at or be angry about actually sounds like a cautionary tale of how crazy the world can get. Legit one of the best sources of documentaries on KZbin. OKI's Weird Stories is another great series, definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys Down the Rabbit Hole. My personal favorites are the John McAfee series, the Hiroo Onoda two-parter and the Thierry Tilly series.

[@Anino_Makata]

Yeah. Fredrik's monotone and serious way of speaking pretty much makes the topics he chooses to research on more interesting and entertaining, without tainting the content itself with unnecessary "entertainment glamour".

[@Sandux930]

We have no wines kathleen

[@DeathofHeavens]

"The secret ingredient is crime."

[@beanwaddlers]

NineDeath That crack is really moreish

[@thanatoast]

For a second i thought you said something inappropriate

[@PaulRudd1941]

I forget where the reference is from, the simpsons springs to mind? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[@PaulRudd1941]

Ah NVM, it's the peep show. Brilliant comment mate.

[@willkatching9219]

They should be paying me to drink this shit

[@tlam3028]

Imagine how confused the Australian wine industry was when they were banned in China and Japan

[@joeschmoe3815]

I'll drink to that! Greetings from Austria 😬

[@SToNeOwNz]

The real question is how can you bottle wine in a country where up is down?

[@sc6554]

@@SToNeOwNz Highly underrated comment here Zack G good one hahahahaha

[@flrs5858]

Zack G We have special gravity harnesses for our kegs and pumps to fill up our wine barrels.

[@stefm.w.3640]

@@joeschmoe3815 prost

[@wednesday8174]

Something I noticed is that the people testing the additives aren't saying "how much we can add safely to avoid harming people" it's always "how much can we get away with adding" it really shows you their priorities

[@PushyPushyPhoenix]

Much like bakers in the Edwardian/Victorian eras, with various powdered substances to make bread more "attractive" in various ways at lowest possible cost. And selling it to people who often ate nothing else. Yeesh. 🍞🍍

[@Noxedwin]

Speaking pragmatically, _everything_ will kill you if you inflict enough of it on yourself. Chocolate will poison you to death if you ingest enough of it. We put a lot of additive shit in our food and drink that already sucks for us, but will absolutely mess us up if we go wild with it. The saying goes "The dose makes the poison." But speaking realistically? *Yeah.* This is _extremely_ a measure of "How many people can we have die to this before the complaining starts to hurt our money?" They knew what they were doing, and what the consequences were. Screw "public outcry", there should have been a public _hanging._

[@rubyy.7374]

“A German man drank a bottle of wine. This is how his organs shut down.”

[@mementoargentum7733]

At least it wasn't Beer. That would've been embarrassing... lol

[@mrPuddiCake]

"CJ, presented himself to the emergency room, a few hours after drinking 5 bottles of wine"

[@MaxwellTornado]

God, I hate that channel.

[@fuckerwhopings9110]

@@MaxwellTornado why :( it's so good

[@LawraaaaPetrina]

I’m glad it’s not just me who thought of chubby emu! Love that channel

[@WhaleManMan]

So this is why Dan Akroyd was always talking about "no glycol" in his Crystal Skull vodka.

[@cheekyfantasy1314]

Omg thats so true

[@koiirohoshi1218]

*cough* very nice

[@SamualDechampain]

Oooooohhhhh

[@prinnyblackblade]

In his defense, Crystal Head IS the best vodka I've ever had.

[@Sandux930]

Or sugar lol

[@kiaayo]

"Austrian wine companies were adding a toxic chemical just to avoid having to put sugar in their wine. They also added sugar to their wines, which made them even more dangerous."

[@nd77u]

We call it farmers logic.

[@xxLiquidxxSnakExx]

**Scene from 300** "This is madness!" "Na! DES - IS - AUSTRIAAA!" **kicks guy into a pit filled with wine**

[@TheOnlyGeggles]

@@xxLiquidxxSnakExx The written out Austrian accent is what makes this funny

[@MrTigracho]

Big brain move

[@dentistguba]

Like the crisps that have MSG despite having so much actual salt etc they taste too strong anyway.

[@chiffoncakeandtea]

Austrian wine going from "cheap, mass produced alternative to higher quality products" to "high quality, well renowed wine with some of the most strict laws out there" is one of the greatest comebacks I've seen

[@immydubby5789]

That's precisely what past mistakes is for. To be better and prevent it from happening again.

[@katiebarber407]

funny how this scenario benefited mostly the already rich wine companies while the poor ones suffered since they couldnt keep up with the rising costs associated with the higher standards

[@g76agi]

@@katiebarber407 so what, you want them still pumping out lower quality wine? Theres a reason why strict regulation is a thing, its needed, especially with food items

[@Max_Mustermann]

It is quite interesting that a lot of government health and safety regulations were the result of similar incidents, yet there are people out there who claim that government regulations should be abolished and that the market will take care of everything.

[@Misha-dr9rh]

@@Max_Mustermann "no guys i swear deregulation will actually work forget about the 14 million times companies have killed people and/or completely trashed the environment due to a lack of regulation the free market will take care of it"

[@Sabrowsky]

At first I was mad I misread "austria" as "australia" but the Japanese and Chinese governments did the same so its all cool

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

G'Day, mate!

[@rachelhallie7483]

My favorite wine is 19 Crimes so if that happened here I'd riot. They may be called 19 Crimes but they committed 0!

[@WhoWantsToKnow81]

There are no kangaroos in Austria.

[@shiblamo1002]

Rachel Hallie They have cool labels on their bottles too. I like that stuff

[@stevenbean9731]

i have been waiting to watch “the Australian wine poisoning” for about four days and now I have an answer as to why everyone keeps talking about German people.

[@reviewbooth8686]

I love the defense of: “well, it’s cheap wine, what did you expect?” As if I should be willing to accept death for a $13 wine

[@generalrubbish9513]

[buys cheap wine] "You have lost your kidney privileges"

[@Yuuzu]

those wines actually go for around 1-2€ per 0.75l bottle here in austria

[@AlexKS1992]

$13 for wine can get you a good bottle.

[@horseenthusiast9903]

Yeah, like. It's not like you buy a box of Franzia and expect to drop dead afterwards...what an awful argument

[@Rizzydom]

@@Yuuzu I remember back in the day we bought 50 cent 1l "Packerlwein"

[@HiddenFat]

I love how this started with a trucker who was like hell nah, no water in my wine

[@wannabehistorian371]

He was a good man.

[@arturocevallossoto5203]

I mean, wine is a very big deal in Austria and Southern Geramny. It's cheap and he probably drank some everyday at dinner. Maybe he even bought of that brand. And then you see this guys dumping water on it like its nothing.

[@Foreststrike]

And then, subsequently, that anonymous man who just leaves a wine bottle with diethylene glycol inside... and walks out like a boss.

[@zeromailss]

@@Foreststrike it would be cool if that man was actually the trucker, his first plea wasn't heard so he decided to take action himself "You dare mess with my wine!? Nobody mess with my wine, *NOBODY!"*

[@KitKatMuskrat]

It’s like he was Jesus, except he turned wine into water into diethylene glycol but not really and this metaphor kinda fell apart.

[@elfertrn]

“They found sugar in the wine” WHAT THE WHOLE POINT OF THE POISON WAS TO REPLACE THE SUGAR “ah yes we substituted the sugar with poison, but let’s put in sugar anyways that makes the poison worse for the lols”

[@plot6520]

It's insane.

[@pj1789]

(for the LULz)

[@BirdieLouise]

I'm European and I had no idea what you were talking about, until you mentioned antifreeze wine. The elderly here in the Netherlands still use this term to this day to describe shitty wine. It's rare though.

[@vbence12]

Huh I guess it's just an Europe thing. Here it was "cow dung" wine. Supposedly because that's what they used instead of grapes

[@GodsWheat]

I legit only heard about this only from the Simpson since I live in the former soviet block

[@Autechltd]

Its like Austria has some kind of Vendetta against the French. Started WW1, then Hitler, then they went out of their way to fuck with wine.

[@adrenalinevan]

You should keep that slang up so nobody forgets the horrific story

[@carlramirez6339]

Thing is, antifreeze wine wouldn't necessarily taste worse, it just causes horrific health problems.

[@SaerasChuu]

Every time he said "glycol" all I could think of was Dan Aykroyd talking about glycol in vodka.

[@hm-jt3os]

There's various glycols, not saying what he has is any good though lmao

[@hm-jt3os]

For example, vape juice is mostly vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol

[@happyveliz]

Glycol? Should it not have glycol in it??

[@plagueofangel8694]

You mean that time Dan Aykroyd almost killed Larry King?

[@ShogunMongol]

@@happyveliz Different kind of glycol.

[@t75044]

I was only a kid in the south of England when this happened but my Dad told me that there was a garage near where we lived that had an advert saying 'Our anti-freeze is 100% wine free'

[@logansmith2703]

That's hilarious

[@usecode___7453]

Classic dry English humor... I love it

[@Makumbator]

I was 12 when all that happened. The Frostschutzmittel-Jokes where off the charts.

[@foxandbarrettshow6916]

I always love how snooty Brits sound when they say" south of north of" that's like saying " when I was in the west of fort Worth"

[@t75044]

​@@foxandbarrettshow6916 It rains alot here, we have to do something to pass the time on those days

[@StookyDoo22]

Seeing grape juice got affected too really struck me. It's such a carefree drink compared to wine, and children drink it!

[@lephishe6271]

Probably more children than adults. Why? No child is going to drink grape juice and say "too bitter!" unless they just find grape juice to be inherently bitter and just don't like grape juice. And the kids that like grape juice probably aren't gonna be that critical of the taste of their grape juice.

[@brodieboy255]

"Austrian wine propaganda office" is a phrase I didn't think I'd be hearing today, or ever really

[@trieuwerts]

Think of it as a marketing company for Austrian wine, as propaganda is just marketing your country.

[@SToNeOwNz]

Think of it as a lobbyist/advocate group.

[@BlueTS777]

holy crap he said it in the vid the exact same time i read ur comment! what is it tho?

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

Yeah, nowadays it's just Left Wing Propaganda. Bring back classy propaganda

[@konsfuzius86]

gross misnomer. it probably (since I do not know the initial source used here) is an interest group, lobbying for wine manufacturers. This is NOT a public office.

[@Svoorhout85]

It infuriates me that scummy politicians are only punished with "resignation" while citizens would go to prison.

[@KazzArie]

Stefan Voorhout only in the worst cases. You catch that the other(s) were transferred to other departments? Same shit absolutely the world over. No government is free from corruption or nepotism

[@jackspedicy2711]

CAPITALISM WINS AGAIN

[@syncategorematically]

well the justice system even today is full of hole and the arsehole with power and money will always got away. like the one said, capitalism win again

[@lazergurka-smerlin6561]

Well there's always the problem of Judges potentially being biased toward a politician because of political affiliation. So because of that bias it's very hard to take politicians to court, and for them to go to prison

[@EinFelsbrocken]

@@syncategorematically Well; I would try other government forms; but if you look at Russia or China; even if theyre communist; theres still the rich and the poor; and the government still meddles in capitalist affairs. Its hopeless; we will remain idiot fucks all around the planet; until we incinerate ourselves in nuclear fire. Yayyyy.. disappointing

[@m_crowley6674]

was this the reason behind that "antifreeze in the wine" joke in the simpsons episode where bart goes to france?

[@docvolt5214]

Indeed

[@H3wastooshort]

always thought it was because of the ethanol in the antifreeze

[@bigEB184]

I thought of the exact same episode.

[@pinkflametheepic]

After all these years I finaly get the joke. Ha ha

[@Grandmaster-Kush]

Good catch!

[@karan_puuung7687]

When people had this toxic wine, this is what happened to their stomach and liver. CJ is a 40 y.o, PRESENTING to the emergency room.

[@stoneman472]

You deserve more likes for that joke.

[@themurderofcoke]

What -emia is ethylene glycol content in blood?

[@mattBLACKpunk]

All you had to do was drink the damn wine cj!

[@angelikaskoroszyn8495]

"A man drank cheap wine. This is what happened to his liver"

[@antidoteforlife9460]

@@angelikaskoroszyn8495 sounds like a Russian proverb

[@YT-ge6vl]

Imagine: Blaming the customers you poisoned for buying your cheap product.

[@docvolt5214]

Apple

[@narbonne7637]

“How could you buy the product I own and made me tons of money? You are to blame, take responsibility, idiot”

[@fenrirsrage4609]

The more things change. The more things stay the same eh?

[@WJINTL]

How dare you buy the poison I marketed as wine. Shame on you. How could you do such a thing?

[@MahouKat]

@white How?

[@PlazmaSilvaraGMS]

so this unknown man with a bottle of chemicals had basically saved multiple lives from toxic wine holy shit, this is a rabbit hole

[@GriffinPilgrim]

And never claimed credit. You gotta admire the integrity.

[@fantage20012]

@@GriffinPilgrim tbh I'm sure it also had to do with the fact that if he revealed his id he'd be fired.

[@GriffinPilgrim]

@@fantage20012 Given as he was probably crashing whatever company he worked for I don't know how much that would serve as motivation.

[@Chaotic4Neutral]

@@GriffinPilgrim It seems likely he never identified himself because he was involved in one way or another... it's not like he was some random citizen who just happened to know about a secret kept by most of the entire wine industry.

[@spencermanyet5336]

@@fantage20012 the numbers and money here are so huge he was probably fearing for his life rather than not getting paid to poison people

[@elegantcat1496]

"They blamed the costumers for buying such cheap wine" Oh, that old trick is even older than I imagined.

[@TheGreatAtario]

If they'd stop paying so much attention to wearing costumes, we wouldn't be in this mess!

[@dicemm5544]

I love how sellers being scam is the consumers fault. Yes, an informed consumer that you give him no information about your product will totally know to make the right decision by just the price. Especially on a simply thing like wine.

[@lunatuna9313]

Good ole’ fashioned gaslighting

[@LUHSTUR]

@@dicemm5544 What makes it even worse though is the fact that so many wine brands were affected. It essentially became a 'find the needle in the hay stack' scenario except the customer couldn't even know what the needle looks like.

[@chosebine2169]

"i was only pretending that THEY'RE retarded"

[@olookslike0]

I love how the most common reaction from the wine industry in Austria was "how can we continue to make this wine as cheaply as possible and yet survive this mass scandal?" and at the end of the day the solution to the problem was just to make better wine and not be cheapskates. I feel like a lot of companies in America could learn a thing or two from that conclusion.

[@bingcrosby1660]

im looking at both the game and automotive industry specifically but really, i can see alot of industries that should tale the same approach

[@Shaun_Jones]

It’s a little more complicated than it seems. The wine companies basically switched from the high volume/low cost market to the smaller volume/high quality market. This would be kind of like if a car company made economy cars, and a scandal broke that they were making unsafe cars; so instead of making better economy cars, the company started building for the luxury car market.

[@olookslike0]

@@Shaun_Jones Well sure, I get that business isn't always about the difference between selling "good or bad" products, still, the course correction seemed to come far later than it probably should have. And at the end of the day, it's the consumers who decide whether an industry is high quality or not, even if its directed towards a specific class of individuals.

[@Iijjccbb]

@@bingcrosby1660 but, but that would require them to release an actually finished game instead of releasing it only mostly or half finished and selling the rest of it through dlc’s!

[@mechanicalruby]

americans?!? learning?!?!? ew!

[@DK3CHAMP]

I remember the old Simpsons episode where a pair of frenchmen poisoned their wine with antifreeze. I had no idea that this was based on this. I thought the plot line was absurd because I didn't think any company would do something as crazy as this.

[@dannylamb456]

Reality is sometimes unrealistic

[@PaulRudd1941]

Aha, this is where I thought about another top comment "the secret ingredient is crime". Cheers.

[@idromano]

@@dannylamb456 this is the best phrase I could've seen today. Thank you

[@nutsackvlogz8892]

i can now deduce that reality is not just a simulation but more specifically a sitcom

[@edwingonzalez7691]

@@nutsackvlogz8892 a really bad sitcom at that

[@holonholon1141]

"Due to the similarity of their names" Australian here, clicked the video wondering why I hadn't heard about the wine poisoning before...

[@holonholon1141]

@Lassi Kinnunen apparently through entry into Latin, meaning "aust-" could either be "east" or "south". Great. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Austria#Etymology

[@pokemonsisters]

Lassi Kinnunen when I was in the second grade we had to write an essay on our ideal vacation location. I had wanted to go to Australia but wrote entirely about Austria when I looked online. “Hm those guys just speak German over there I guess!”

[@KOTEBANAROT]

@@pokemonsisters your teacher: wow this kid wants to learn about europe and look at the buildings and shit, thats unusual You: kemgoroo

[@brennencox516]

I thought that too, I think because I know of Australia's wine industry, but not of Austria's.

[@nameofthename]

bruh i too thought australia had a wine poisoning and so when he said "austria(n)" for the first time, i was so confused

[@HelloKittyfouronesix]

Everything makes sense now. When I lived in Germany in the mid to late 90s, I use to go to this castle that was near where I lived. They had a yearly wine event in the courtyard. I use to go but hated dry wine. So I asked if there were any sweet ones. I got the funniest looks, and I didn't know why. I didn't speak German well and they didn't speak English at all. So I just chucked it up of me mispronouncing what I was saying. No. It was because of poisonings.

[@lnplum]

I'm German and I absorbed the cultural knowledge that "sweet wine is cheap garbage mixed with sugar and antifreeze that give you headaches" before I was even of drinking age. I never understood where the prejudice against sweet wine came from.

[@Valandix]

@@lnplum Here in Belgium, we do have strong prejudices against against german/austrian beer and wine and this scandal didn't help to change that, and plus this is still in the mind of people, per example : Not long ago, my grandpa just stated that the germans can't make wine without pourring garbage in it.

[@wildfire9280]

​@@Valandix The virgin wine vs. the chad BEER

[@ali.e7860]

@Jay Morgan well no one is arguing that American beer is trash

[@heinousdickanus6040]

@Ilja Permiakov no, its really not. In most places in the world out the strongest of our "beer" would be considered light beer. Bad light beer at that. Ive lived here my whole life and i still cant palate any kind of beer from here.

[@abeharis5770]

-straight up barge into federal institue of agricultural chemistry building -put a bottle and says that inside the bottle was the chemical used to make a lot of wine -refuse to elaborate further -leave That guy with german accent is absolute chad

[@The_Andyman]

This whole fiasco seems to be one long "but wait, there's more!"

[@The_Andyman]

Order now, and you can get another Hades free!

[@merrittanimation7721]

"And then they sunk lower."

[@Ghdkgifhfhdh3]

Just a horror house with a neverending series of doors lol

[@TomboTime]

This could be said about ANY down the rabbit hole episode

[@Tinlion09]

That's the best kind of fiasco right there.

[@zachanikwano]

Honestly hearing how the wine companies tried to hide their poisoned goods and just gloriously f*cking it up and revealing themselves instead? Soothes the soul.

[@rabidfurify]

It's funny because one company dumping their poison wine probably wouldn't have had such an immediate effect but they all did it at the same time

[@lavenderhuman]

Peak comedy honestly

[@mo_lifts4]

@@rabidfurify something something tragedy of the commons

[@enterprisekid]

Misistry of Viticulture: How much sawdust can we put in our rice-krispies before people actually notice?

[@DeandreSteven]

Sawdust probably wont hurt you tho. Its just cellulose. It could block up your pooper

[@boilaknezzi8974]

PolySaken I get my fresh logs delivered every week from a free range tree farm. The logs are poison free, juicy and tender. I usually have mustard on the side for dipping!

[@AlexanderLeset]

"We Tested Positive (For Glycol Poisoning)"

[@dennismartin5821]

Well, Taco Bell's been going with a 10 to 20% mixture. I say we try that.

[@rentori7141]

@Enterprise Kid I understood that reference

[@milkyshakes]

Waiter: “Our special wine today is a 40 year old rare Austrian known for it’s sweet taste…” All of us: “I’m okay thx”

[@oswaldfigglebottom]

"A man drank a bottle of Austrian wine. This is what happened to his brain." - chubbyemu

[@GabAssbreaker]

Fredrik describing the symtoms of poisoning reminds me a lot of chubbyemu.

[@julianstraub8766]

Regardless of what is in it, not sure drinking an entire bottle of wine by your lonesome is an advisable idea. _Especially_ Austrian, in that case just go for five and make it a straight up suicide attempt.

[@absinthefandubs9130]

@@GabAssbreaker He really does a good impression around 6 minutes

[@PickleSurpriseVEVO]

“Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated” - some German guy in Austria

[@washingmachine969]

God damn, that game was brutal.

[@Uberkatze-]

Hitler?

[@proudtobeme1ashkente]

@@Uberkatze- That'd be funny but it's a German guy in Austria. With Hitler, it was the other way around.

[@knavenformed9436]

But Picard is french? And in space.

[@sdfabctr]

"Some German guy in Austria" sounds like the ultimate setup for a joke but I don't know how to finish it.

[@NekogamiKun127]

*Austrian Winemakers:* We need to avoid adding sugar to our wine, so let's add diethylene glycol instead. *Austrian Winemakers:* And let's add sugar, because if we're already adding poison to our wine, then who really gives a shit anymore.

[@nd77u]

Well that's correct! The who gives a shit vibe is pretty strong here in our corner of the world

[@GymnopedieTornado]

hey thx for thomas bernhard at least

[@MirandaSinistra]

What could go wrong?

[@HannahViera]

Lassi Kinnunen because unlike glycol, aspartame tastes like poison.

[@kelsiday2084]

@Lassi Kinnunen aspartame ironically reacts really poorly in most people ( it gives me fucking killer migraines ) but thus far, it hasn't killed anyone (that I'm aware of) so has managed to stay in a lot of American products even though it is banned in some places and other countries. Not surprised tho. but really I just wanted to say that maybe aspartame wasn't being used as an artificial sweetener yet (were artificial sweeteners even a thing? idk) The other thing is they wanted to use something difficult to trace deliberately, in part so their wine *seemed* very pure when it was literal poison lmao I think if they had used aspartame, it would be 1. fairly easy to detect and 2. aspartame just??? isnt even that sweet. Idk how sweet glycol is but i don't intend on finding out :)

[@Ebinspurdo]

Ah, now I understand the saying "Life is too short to drink cheap wine".

[@vivil2533]

I got a new saying "Life is too long to drink expensive wine."

[@taseti3607]

Virgin KZbinr: Gotta get the last scoop on the current drama and memes Chad KZbinr: Austrian Wine Poisoning

[@Pin3C0ne]

Ta Seti Fredrik is the definition of not following trends

[@liaml.e.5964]

This channel is one of the best, imo. He does deep research on every subject, cites it, and delivers with massive quality.

[@derekg5674]

Liam L.E. I think the word you’re looking for is, “cite.”

[@liaml.e.5964]

@@derekg5674 thank you

[@AlanaBananaCanada]

_Raises poisoned wine_ 🍷

[@KaeYoss]

"We can't add sugar, as they're testing for that. Let's add glycol." "Okay, but let's also add sugar" "Wha-"

[@ecyor0]

"Good news, ethanol counteracts the poison!" "Hooray!" "But sugar makes it worse!" "Oh no!" (also, what a wild ride, I did not expect a "this was ultimately the result of global warming" twist at the end there)

[@hellothere5843]

But you can't have glycol in alcohol, because glycol is antifreeze. You would know that if you drank Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head Vodka, which is vodka in its purest form, quadruple distilled with double terminated quartz.

[@marioanothlp]

@@hellothere5843 I finally understand why people who tested the vodka on the shows looked on in horror when they mentioned it....

[@SDZ675]

I bet it was not that harmful before they added that sugar.

[@Igorcastrochucre]

The bit near the end seems almost comical: Boss: "We need to mix clean wine with anti-freeze wine to dilute the poison" Employee: "Sir, look around there is no clean wine anywhere, only anti-freeze"

[@shmunkyman33]

Wine, wine everywhere and not a drop to dilute your tainted antifreeze-wine with

[@Arcueid_Brunestud]

@@rudito22 What do you mean you're at antifreeze?!

[@chippydippy1530]

@@Arcueid_Brunestud I MEAN I'M AT ANTIFREEZE

[@LieseFury]

it's like something from the simpsons

[@winterwolf6910]

“WHAT STORE ARE YOU IN?!” “IM IN THE ANTIFREEZE STORE!!!” “WHY ARE YOU BUYING WINE FROM THE A N T I F R E E Z E S T O R E?!!!”

[@rubenj.3894]

''... Japan and China also ordered a ban on Australian wine, due to the similarity of the countries names'' I am wondering how the Australian vineyards responded to that lol

[@surfinbird221]

Duck gang

[@rubenj.3894]

@@surfinbird221 Duck gang 🦆

[@SkelechickenLives]

God I remember my father making antifreeze wine jokes all the time growing up. I had no idea how deep this particular conspiracy actually went. Imagine the stones you must need to argue that it's consumers' fault for buying cheap wine in the wake of poisoning people.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Victim blaming is always a great tactic for those who have committed crimes.

[@kevinoconnor4582]

Imagine the stones you need to poison innocent people

[@artyomsaveli9681]

Imagine the kidney stones you'd get from drinking their wine and bullshit.

[@Dther99]

"Government looking to cheaply dispose of antifreeze wine" That one cement company that couldn't afford antifreeze: *kewlont*

[@Ohnonoki]

I dont know why but this is way funnier on the second read

[@ghoulbuster1]

haha red juice make machine cold

[@Sandux930]

Cold juice cold masheen

[@hawktalon7890]

That sums it up lmao

[@channel5980]

LOL Meme Man language.

[@connorpickens7523]

"Hey, I have your 400,000 liter shipment of ethylene glycol. Where's it going?" "The wine factory." *"Sounds perfectly good to me."*

[@voidofspaceandtime4684]

@@dotexe1205 for his singular small tractor. so no.

[@rebornpheonix1016]

@@voidofspaceandtime4684 That's the joke.

[@shutupdumbdog827]

@@voidofspaceandtime4684 bruh

[@CalderaXII]

@@voidofspaceandtime4684 who knew a void could be so dense

[@Robert-tl2vg]

Connor Pickens well... you tried to be funny

[@isaacgruver7061]

"Ahh shit, they realized we poisoned the wine. Well, Germany hasn't realized yet, let's sell it to them!" What scumbags.

[@jaden4804]

sigma males*

[@armitx9]

@@jaden4804 😎

[@lebakas_peppi]

Maybe shouldn't have started WW1

[@lolno6465]

​@@lebakas_peppi but Austria started WW1....

[@spot1401]

There was a joke in Germany back then. 'give me some antifreeze will ya?' -' sure would that be Red or white?'

[@alexanderholzer7392]

'n bisschen Frostschutz bidde

[@EinFelsbrocken]

Frosdshudds hea; Leude; aber dalli!

[@LeatherCladVegan]

Ah yes, that famous German 'sense of humour'.

[@drosera88]

26:41 That's the best defense ever. "Well maybe if you hadn't bought our shitty wine in the first place you wouldn't have gotten poisoned!"

[@Chaotic4Neutral]

That's the worst defense ever, consumers make up the public and public opinion is one of the most important thing to any brand. They must have been really desperate to come to that line of defense, or very stupid.

[@Volvith]

Antifreeze Wine being used as a coolant... ... I mean, you have to admit; that level of irony is almost poetic.

[@Zestric]

"Frostschutzwein" (Antifreeze wine) is still sometimes used to describe cheap, bad tasting wine. Even by people not alive at the time.

[@AlexReynard]

Once again, Frederick takes a subject I had no knowledge of or interest in, and makes a video that is both absolutely horrifying and absolutely riveting.

[@deusexaethera]

*Fredrik 😉

[@idontevenknow9758]

Totally, this is the KZbin I wanted. Weird and interesting events in history or just bizarre characters on the internet discussed in great detail and lots of research.

[@VersaceJesus]

So this was Austria's second worst export to Germany?

[@FizzyGajing]

Wait. What? Hahahahaha

[@facelessidiot6407]

Ouch.

[@channel5980]

Oof

[@red2theelectricboogaloo961]

@@FizzyGajing you know. the second worst export from austria to germany, just like the wierd mustache man, the first worst.

[@Darrylizer1]

LOL

[@chutneybucket5622]

"I'm fine now." That is the most German response ever.

[@kostajovanovic3711]

In Herzog's voice

[@neurotoxic1830]

"Mir geht es gut jetzt". Try that in heavy German accent

[@bugjams]

Dude had his entire liver fail and was like “Yeah whatever”, wouldn’t be surprised if he went back to drinking. 😂

[@ilasq]

when did he say that

[@Jan-ex3wj]

what does his response gave to do with germany?

[@ShamankingZuty]

I wonder if surviving bottles of these wines are collector items. There's such a good story behind it and so many bottles were destroyed, so I feel like this would be an extremely rare niche item for someone who is a wine hobbiest. At the very least, it's a talking point for a bottle you have in your collection but can never drink.

[@LuperisNone]

For only 50 grand you can have your very own bottle of poison.

[@ajj4515]

I really want to drink it tbh. Not like a lot of course. But like. Just a glass

[@The_Stigs_Austrian_cousin]

@@ajj4515 We have some in our wine cellar ranging from 1976 to 1985, but most of them have bad corks by now, they would taste like vinegar.

[@gerald216]

​@@The_Stigs_Austrian_cousinYummy death vinegar. Sign me up

[@RokaiMusic]

9:18 I love how you published this on April 23rd 2020 - exactly 35 years after the announcment by the Austrian government about the wine poisoning.

[@GRfg1000]

Rokai it’s Fredrik’s birthday

[@bladesandswords6136]

I’m still wondering who that random guy was. The mans a hero

[@patrickfrost9405]

Doing the work of Dionisus

[@equidistanthoneyjoy7600]

My best guess is that it was a blackmailer. Someone that had previously worked at a winery that was putting the stuff into their wine got fired for whatever reason, tried to threaten his former boss into paying for silence and the boss said no. If he was acting out of genuine altruism, he'd have approached the authorities in a less flamboyant way and also wouldn't have hidden his identity. I think this guy clearly wanted to brew a shitstorm, which is why he did it the way he did.

[@shanethebard3339]

to brew a massive shit storm out of cheap poisoned wine... it's poetic.

[@arandom35yearold]

@@equidistanthoneyjoy7600 Yes because publicly doing this to an entire industry with your identity for all to know is a really good idea. They were willing to poison their costumers, you think they wouldnt kill the whistleblower had his identity been known?

[@user-fe8gx3ie5v]

Not a hero, but a thoughtful guy.

[@manticore6963]

I lived in Germany all my Life and I NEVER heard about this. WTF. How? Edit: Just realized, I live in East Germany, so the western market didn't affect us during that time. That's why I never heard about it.

[@patternwhisperer4048]

I'm swiss and I never heard about this either. How old are you approximately? This is so weird that I never even heard it mentioned. We talk about other austrian scandals that arent that much older here

[@finnkatz]

Haha communism

[@rollingtim2164]

I live in south germany but I have never heard if it either

[@manticore6963]

@@patternwhisperer4048 I'm 32 (this year 33), was born shortly after the Scandal. But even then, a huge Scandal like that would've normally come to me through the Grapevine. (no Pun intended)

[@SnowberryFlavour]

I think this depends on the year you were born in. I am from Austria and was born in the 90s - and to this day, I didn't know anything about this case. The only thing I head about was "Anti-Freeze Wine", but in another context und just by accident. Furthermore, I come from a region where there are not many wineries (we mainly produce and drink beer). Maybe that's different in other regions, such as Burgenland, which are renowned for their wine.

[@XavierTheNeonTiger]

This is by far my favourite down the rabbit hole. The corruption is terrible, of course, but it's so over the top it crosses the line for me to hilarious.

[@damienhelmold6978]

mine 2

[@Sisyphos420]

I'm German, and I must say: your pronouncing of Prädikatswein sounds like "later kotz Wein", witch means "later vomit". Fitting.

[@muadddib]

Alter das sagt der also die ganze Zeit, alles klar

[@Sisyphos420]

@@muadddib Hab's auch erst durch die Kommentare hier herausgefunden. ^^

[@willpestka2745]

Nit picked detail but could be useful to ya: replace witch with which

[@EmeraldLavigne]

@@willpestka2745 whelp their yo goes.

[@neilbecker9539]

I took german in high school for 1 year before I got kicked out....all I can remember how to say is "mien mutter ist in dien toilette".

[@mariavitoriaassuncao8701]

Something similar happened here in Brazil last new year’s eve: People started to become ill out of nowhere, with very strong simptoms, even getting paralyzed. The doctors didn’t understand how they had diethylene glycol in their bodies. The family of a man who died and the wife of a man who was hospitalized with the sabe simptoms got in touch and started comparing their routines in the days they fell ill. The only thing they had in common was that they both drank the same beer. These families got in touch with the company, demanding explanations. The company recalled the type of beer they had, and upon further investigation they found out traces of glycol in several other tanks in the factory. About one million bottles of beer produced by the company were recalled. Their lawyer tried to blame other companies, saying that other beer factories had been adding glycol, and saying that just because the cientists found glycol in the beer, that didn’t necessarily meant that it was not appropriate to consume. The company said that they couldn’t pay the lawsuit that costed 100 million reais (brazilian money), even if they gave their possessions away. They never paid and the case was gradually forgotten. There were about 30 cases confirmed, and 5 people died (it’s estimated to have more cases that weren’t linked). Also there aren’t a lot of cases comparing to other poisonings because the beer was produced and mostly sold in the state of Minas Gerais. The people who survived had long term consequences. There isn’t a lot of information but just search for “cervejaria backer”, and you’ll find more. Just wanted to share this because even nowadays there are companies repeating the same mistake. Also sorry for the broken English and poor format, writing on the phone 😶

[@avalonjustin]

There are shitty, greedy bastards everywhere. Sorry to hear that happened in Brazil.

[@idromano]

lol sério?

[@stevenattanasso2003]

symptoms

[@alistairsmith6961]

Your English is really good :)

[@Zaximillian]

This in turn reminds me of the Goiânia accident in Brazil in 1987, where a couple of guys went into an abandoned hospital, broke down an MRI core, took out the radioactive Cesium powder, and passed it around to friends and family. This is an equally wild and ultimately tragic story, as several people died of radiation poisoning. This accident was an equally tangled mess of many different agencies and ordinary people who had no idea what they had in their bare hands.

[@TacosTasteLikeBlue]

As a chemist, I love your explanations in this. You perfectly conveyed the difficultly in experimentation, the overcoming of sensitivity in measurements, and the biological effect of drinking this compound. Excellent job!

[@meowtherainbowx4163]

Username checks out I’m actually a chemical engineering major, and this scandal makes me a bit wary of any industry I end up in.

[@MandrakeFernflower]

He nailed the nephrotoxic MOA I'm still curious how the brain damage occurs - maybe that second metabolite 2-hydroxyethoxy acetate gets conjugated to coenzyme A and that conjugate fucks up lipid synthesis?

[@napatora]

"it's their fault for buying cheap wine" doesn't really track when the entire market was tainted, besides the other more obvious problems with that statement

[@dalemoss4684]

When mum went grocery shopping she got my dad a 2 litre cask of cheap port. She'd say "here's your box of antifreeze" Now I get it

[@RealDSY]

Are you an austrian or did this phrase travel further then i realized

[@Gambit771]

@@RealDSY I'm in the UK and still hear cheap plonk being referred to as antifreeze. I used to joke about putting it in my car during winter.

[@dalemoss4684]

@@RealDSY no Australian ironically. I think it maybe got publicity here at the time because of the name mix-up and Australian wines being suspect idk

[@omirandao7958]

I've heard people call extra cheap alcohol that's often consumed by homeless people antifreeze. Never knew where the phrase came from

[@Pop013]

@@omirandao7958 we call it vinegar

[@GregariousBant]

You know it's gonna be a good Down the Rabbit Hole when you're less than 10 minutes in and already can't understand how it could get any worse. It always does.

[@futureshock382]

Wouldn't be called a rabbit hole if it didn't get worse

[@willywimpy6026]

Holy cow I thought I was at least half way through this video when I was reading this comment and I realized I was only nine minutes and fifty five seconds in!!!

[@r3uvsgaming]

As Jeremy Clarkson always says "What could possibly go wrong?"

[@bernardovitiello]

Earlier this year, an incident involving Diethylene glycol and alcohol sadly happened in my country (Brazil) Luckily it was limited to a single brand of beer and limited to a single state.

[@The_Practical_Daydreamer]

I hope no one died.

[@lighteriumart]

@@The_Practical_Daydreamer Sadly, some did. At least 5 cases are linked to this poisoning. It was a huge thing in my state.

[@traptrixmyrmeleo1720]

A cerveja de minas foi o mesmo produto usado nesses vinhos austríacos? Não tinha ligado os pontos e os nomes.

[@Schizo_Souls]

This happened in some Caribbean islands aswell. I was on a ship and was told not to drink certain alcohols while on liberty(shore leave).

[@lucasguedes1495]

It's quite a coincidence that media in Brazil also mistook glycol as a antifreeze

[@germanas7898]

"How was the government involved? How did this happen in the first place? And why?". The answer is simple - Money, money and obviously, money.

[@evertonc1448]

We had a beer poisoning by one company here in Brazil with the same chemical... 5 months ago.

[@68able2]

best country

[@Veronica-bk6wn]

Cervejaria Backer was the company producing the beer, iirc.

[@Soitisisit]

That sucks... How many were hurt?

[@jobivuvuvfvi605]

Real shit?

[@kaisersoymilk6912]

Bolsonaro FTW

[@SuperVjimenez]

Ryan really outdid himself with the music for this one. So many different sounds for each track too. Great stuff.

[@robb617iejb56]

I like the dog

[@nalrashido]

Yeah the ending credits music is really catchy.

[@ecyor0]

10:45 can we just stop to talk about how these scientists literally solved the problem by *sciencing harder*?

[@zanec14]

*SCIENCING* *INTENSIFIES* Not going to lie though, 3 months for that much improvement is quite impressive.

[@DoomguyIsGrinningAtYou.]

To quote DR. Coomer from Half Life VR: "DON'T F#CK WITH THE SCIENCE TEAM!"

[@Asupreme]

@@DoomguyIsGrinningAtYou. Look, Gordon! Comments! We can use these to voice opinions!

[@AnimeSunglasses]

@@michaelgove9349 Science on public money vs science on private money! (FIGHT!)

[@michaelgove9349]

@@AnimeSunglasses Yes, I would like to see an anime dramatisation of this conflict, ft Naruto running. xD But the very fact that scientists come to opposite conclusions depending on who's funding them is an alarm bell...

[@DonWelsh3]

Reminds me of 'The Tylenol Murders' over here in the USA in the 80's .... still unsolved to this day as well.

[@maninredhelm]

German/Austrian culture has a strange outlook on regulations. They love to create rules, but they also seem to really love engineering ways to beat them too. I'm thinking of the Volkswagen emissions scandal as well. Every culture has rule breakers, but the Germans put more work into it, to the point where you wonder why they didn't just put all that work into complying with the regulation in the first place.

[@ThroneOfBhaal]

They even over engineer their cheating. Did you notice? :D

[@TheMcAraber]

That's probably the most Austrian/German thing possible.

[@IllusionistsBane]

@@ThroneOfBhaal I heard that improvements in NASCAR cars started out as cheats. Oh yeah, it was Smokey Yunick's.

[@theatagamer90]

@@IllusionistsBane Oh yeah. Cheating in NASCAR was how most of the improvements happened. Or how most of the rules ended up being written.

[@bananabrain364]

Oh, man! I have this distinct memory of walking through the grocery store with my mom and seeing these brightly colored wine bottles. I thought they were cool as a kid, cause they were like neon blue and green and pink wines. I asked my mom, "what's that?" And my mom said, "ew, never drink that stuff, it's antifreeze." I never understood why she said that, or why someone would want to drink "antifreeze," but this video made sense of that memory!

[@opl500]

Don't drink that wine because you're a kid, don't drink it because it's antifreeze?

[@jonathanodude6660]

opl500 "never"

[@ohsweatbret]

opl500 It’s very common in other countries for kids as young as 8-10 to have a small glass of wine with dinner.

[@Spamhard]

@@ohsweatbret Younger than that tbh.

[@bananabrain364]

@@opl500 I live in the US, and my mom never let me have more than a sip of wine on special occasions, so it was definitely the latter! I think my mom was just giving me "life advice," for when I became of age, lol. I was 10 or 11 at the time.

[@nd77u]

I from one of the Wine poisoning towns. My dad told me, when the first one went to jail, our local sewage plant got flooded with red wine that lead to nearly killing of the water purification microbes. I even heard about a large fish dying because of that

[@None-Trick_Pony]

Drinking game: everytime he says 'glycol' drink pure diethelyne glycol.

[@Echo_the_half_glitch]

no doN'T DO THAT-

[@LevakekkuLI]

@@Echo_the_half_glitch don't worry, it's fine. people did that all the time in the 80's

[@jstoned88]

@RadBaeron what a long name

[@gl1tchygreml1n]

@@LevakekkuLI That is the longest name I’ve ever seen on KZbin, pretty impressive actually

[@richardtherichard26]

Go ahead, gene pool needs some culling anyway

[@TSFboi]

I can't ignore the fact that this is literally the plot of Goodburger.

[@corazondonquixote]

SwagHags69 why would you say something like this

[@zenoblues7787]

The greatest art imitates life

[@wheedler]

Also The Simpsons episode where Bart goes to France.

[@MaxiemumKarnage]

@@wheedler That was inspired by this scandal

[@lakotacorff4012]

Explain

[@ElArto95]

Here's a fun game: Take a shot every time Fredrik says "diethylene glycol". For more inmmersion, drink wine sweetened with diethylene glycol.

[@zeusrulez]

The real question would be what would you die of first: the diethylene glycol or alcohol poisoning

[@Sisyphos420]

Challenge accepted! Fu, liver!

[@MrCantStopTheRobot]

Best vomiting seizure I ever spent in the fetal position. Thanks!

[@Adamant_Consternation]

I don't knwwwwwwwww thys seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeems tow bee gonging pourrrrrlyyyy.

[@9a912]

"inmmersion"

[@obviousbear1289]

I remember my parents talking about it quite a lot when I was a small kid, although of course I didn't understand the ramifications at the time. All I mostly remembered was "yeah, antifreeze in the wine, don't drink it", which wasn't that difficult at age 6. It's very interesting to see this summarized so thoroughly, very good work!

[@SnowberryFlavour]

My experience was very similar to yours. I was too young and didn't think much about it.

[@sasaki8765]

@Egg T Buncha' Ham sandwitches, am I right?

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

People: "The people who make cheap wine poisoned us!" Lawyers: "It's your fault for wanting cheap wine." Ha ha, oh wow.

[@wegner7036]

I always thought that the wine industry was so incredibly pretentious that wine stewards would eventual justify the poisoning of anyone who dare purchase cheap wine.

[@michaelg5587]

Welcome to Austria, if you can't afford bread eat cake 😅

[@bocodamondo]

the fact that some of those companies were more worried about mixing the wine with the poison while the priority of it being undetectable instead of being least harmful is disgusting...

[@TheKnutification]

that's capitalism in a nut shell sadly

[@baconingbad]

@@TheKnutification That has nothing to do with capitalism. It's selfishness and greed.

[@eduardodiaz9942]

@@baconingbad Which are the defining traits of capitalism. Profit before anything else.

[@NotBamOrBing]

@@baconingbad "the fire had nothing to do with flammable liquids, it was caused by all the petrol"

[@dungeoneerofphilosophyphd172]

@@NotBamOrBing it's more like "yes the flammable liquid made it worse but the inherent problem is that you put matches and a flamethrower in here next to it" Like, capitalism isn't the real problem, greed in the presence of capitalism is.

[@supleted]

I like how Fredrik never follow the trend and report on meme-y internet news, but instead chose to document lesser known stories few has every heard about.

[@Robert-tl2vg]

Grammar is good yes?

[@mikhailthegreatestdragon3627]

That's what he's known for

[@saulthechicanootaku]

@@mikhailthegreatestdragon3627 he does follow trends to but as mentioned by supleted, he also mixes in some stuff that happened on the news outside of the internet

[@Mattquatch1]

I feel like half of his videos follow this trend, but the other half strike me as very exploitative lolcow kiwi farms type stuff, which is definitely disappointing.

[@mikhailthegreatestdragon3627]

@@saulthechicanootaku I found out about Friedrik from the rat utopia experiment and his old stuff on cryptids and lore, that's hardly bandwagon-y or mainstream, so I guess that notion is just bias on my end

[@blanchfor]

That one defense lawyer “ the consumer is at fault, they bought super cheap wine and didn’t do any research!” Some people really will do anything for a buck

[@jacobford3452]

It's almost like companies only care about profit under capitalism, and they regularly have to be regulated to prevent these abuses from happening because the whole system prioritises the wrong things.

[@merrittanimation7721]

I remember back in US History about the stuff which would get thrown into meat before the regulations were put in due to poor maintenance and general apathy. It's disgusting how common this sort of thing is.

[@ihateyankees3655]

@@jacobford3452 Austria had government agencies and inspectors, and the poisoning still happened.

[@sparetime2475]

This isn’t the lawyers fault legally they have to support someone even if they know they are guilty

[@jimmyseaver3647]

D Blanch The customers often don't do proper research, yes, which is why they have to be protected, and regulations put into place to ensure safe, quality products.

[@ceb0lla904]

this video is so rewatchable, the story getting worse and worse never ceases to surprise me

[@jimmysteffen777]

These kinds of DTRH’s are my favorite. I love it when you just go in on a really obscure historical topic and explain it in detail. I also enjoy your videos on forgotten Internet personalities and movements, but these kind are my favorite. Great work!

[@DairunCates]

...and this is why healthy regulatory oversight of any industry that goes in or around a human body is an absolute necessity.

[@farmerboy916]

Honestly, this sort of shit just happens and has very little correlation to regulation unless you specifically redefine all regulation that is ineffective or works against the common good to "not count." But that is dishonest and cherrypicking. For all the things like this we forget today, we remember scares that didn't happen (eg the mixup with Australian wine, or Upton Sinclair [widely remembered, but provably baseless claims that caused the FDA to be created in the US; he was politically motivated], or the more recent poisonings in India that were blamed on homemade alcohol by the press but were some people taking tainted fuel grade ethanol and rebottling it to sell out the back of a small store or something like that). Regulation only works insofar as people are mostly willing to go with it on all sides (without that on the side of government enforcement you get corruption, on the side of the public you get a black market/ ignoring the law altogether, on the side of business just acting illegally or avoiding the regulation via convoluted messes), and at that point self regulation works to a pretty decent degree; see underwriters laboratories. It's simply not some magical cure-all solution, even if "done right." And of course even so, mistakes are made or things are discovered that could not have been previously known; it is dishonest to excuse those so as to leave your particular flavor of regulation without flaw, but those too seem to be forgotten in the public eye if not these arguments. It's simply correlation that where people are wealthy enough to take care and buy the proper product, this happens less. People aren't as willing to buy booze from the back of a random convenience store because it's cheap and not ask questions, for instance, and so that sort of incident really can't happen in say England.

[@mikegribanov6105]

@@farmerboy916 that person isnt saying regulation is flawless and a catch all solution to all problems. Just that its better to have it than not have it.

[@Oroberus]

Exception: The US, every kind of regulation or oversight of/over any part of any industry is either fascism or socialism, if it's done in the US, perfectly demonstrated by the first answer to this post.

[@shep9194]

@@farmerboy916 found the libertarian

[@fallingpetunias9046]

@@melc311 Right.

[@JamesJani]

I just got a mini dopamine hit seeing the notification for this new vid

[@ner__0365]

ya mini lol

[@Dan-cm9ow]

@@ner__0365 Maybe if you're a heroin addict

[@Sandwich13455]

Ye selling it?

[@ajwarner1273]

@Egg T he literally mentioned it earlier today lol

[@sammycampbell1654]

me too... been too long

[@WHITEDIRTProductions]

The profound statement alluding to what's next -> then fade to black... is exquisite. Pulls me further in each time. Even harder to pull off in KZbin format. Great job

[@g.sergiusfidenas6650]

The mysterious whistleblower in the thumbnail looks like J Jonah Jameson, while he normally protects New York from that masked menace Spider-Man he also sometimes protects the european consumer while incognito, quite the hero if you ask me.

[@g.sergiusfidenas6650]

@ShadowKing 7890 your welcome, I am glad you had some fun and I am glad to have found another J. Jonah Jameson fan we are as scarce as a honest politician, well maybe not that scarce.

[@bachpham6862]

Not to mention his ethic as a journalist, as he didn't rat out Peter even though his life was threatened.

[@cyberjunq]

I thought it was an Austrian version of Carl from aqua teen hunger force haha

[@Mothman1992]

@@bachpham6862 I still love that part

[@FirstLast-uz6eq]

bring me photos PHOTOS OF TAINTED WINE

[@Omnywrench]

"...anyvey, zat's how I lost my alcohol license."

[@tylerlackey1175]

Ahaha what a story hans

[@emilpersidski]

"Zey found antifreeze in his wine, and ze brewer was never heard from again!"

[@jjayala5512]

"Now... Hehe, Let's go practice wine-making."

[@Alabenson]

You see, sandvich, this is why I drink vodka.

[@addiction2409]

“Livers grow back!” *turns away* “No they don’t”

[@names9728]

Imagine being so angry that you throw SALAD at a minister

[@sisterslothington]

I feel like cabbages would've made a bolder statement!

[@ryandeklerk9553]

@@sisterslothington MY CABBAGES

[@alexanderholzer7392]

I wonder if they actually just threw lettuce since salad and lettuce are the same word in German (Salat).

[@alexei2249]

Oh it could be way worse. Farmers in France in 2014 sprayed cow feces on government buildings and rotting produce at politicians

[@plantherum2365]

@@alexei2249 Yikes

[@malign3158]

You can always count on someone to make a joke out of a bad situation. “Cheers, to Glycol!” What an absolute memelord

[@hihi123hiful]

This is why you need strong regulatory bodies for your food and drinks. The motivation to cut costs runs up with the need to not consume literal poison.

[@stevenschnepp576]

The FDA is one of the few legitimate government agencies, yes.

[@bilbo_gamers6417]

This is the reason we don't need regulatory agencies. Because the confidence given to the public by their existence does more harm than good. What we need are decentralized organizations with actual integrity that do this kind of testing alongside a fair media to report the reality. The government can't be trusted.

[@smaakjeks]

@@bilbo_gamers6417 "This is the reason we don't need regulatory agencies." Regulatory agencies work like a charm as long as they are well funded and not corrupted by organised crime, or corporatism. "Because the confidence given to the public by their existence does more harm than good." How? "What we need are decentralized organizations with actual integrity that do this kind of testing" Regulatory agencies with integrity will do fine, and work fine in most developed countries. The countries with strongest regulatory protections are countries that are nice to live in, and vice versa. Now list countries where decentralised organisations are the only regulatory bodies, and where it works just fine. Also, why would the public not be complacent from your preferred measure of regulation vs a government agency? "The government can't be trusted." A government earns trust based on its performance. Several governments are reliable and trustworthy.

[@smaakjeks]

@@stevenschnepp576 There are loads of legitimate government agencies.

[@bilbo_gamers6417]

@@smaakjeks It does more harm than good because of the false confidence that the FDA and USDA certification give. It discourages consumers from doing their own research about a product or a drug, which makes food and drugs less safe overall. The whole point is that the government never works well, because they have no reason to work well. They have no accountability. The FDA is unbelievably corrupt, but you just don't hear about it because the government is very powerful. The FDA also doesn't work very well, and, to be completely frank, it functions as the hand of big pharma corporatism. Voluntarism is not used because people like the idea of the government having control more, because they are more powerful theoretically.

[@britishcodfish1472]

Can’t believe they sent their poison wine to different countries when they got caught in order to hit their margins... Oh, wait, no, that’s totally believable, it’s a large company lol.

[@chthonicchive8753]

*cough* *cough* bayer's contaminated haemophilia blood products *cough*

[@trekker105]

Carnation baby formula also...

[@KapnKrowe]

Tobacco companies leaving the heavily-regulated western market and focusing on China in a nutshell

[@6645241]

Canada selling asbesto to third world countries and murdering activists.

[@Sam-xw6sl]

Now now comrades

[@filipernus]

I was like "Oh 1980s, that's not too long ago" but then i realized it was already 2020

[@xcp4518]

I always think “oh, 1980, 20 years ago”

[@countdown4725]

1980 is closer to WW2 than to 2020

[@TheOnlyGeggles]

@@countdown4725 Fitting name btw.

[@sisterslothington]

@@xcp4518 This is literally me until I die. Time is odd.

[@Itariatan]

You need to get out of the early 2000s, my friend.