112. True Wine Crime - The Austrian Antifreeze Scandal

Host: Joanne Close Episode Length: 12:14 Release Date: May 21st 2026

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Episode Description

In the third installment of the True Wine Crime series, Joanne Close digs into one of the most notorious wine fraud scandals in history - the 1985 Austrian wine adulteration scandal, widely known as the antifreeze scandal. While the headline was sensational, the full story is more nuanced, and ultimately more interesting, than it first appears.

At the heart of the scandal was a chemical called diethylene glycol (DEG), used in antifreeze but not antifreeze itself, added to wines to mimic the rich body and sweetness of expensive Prädikat-style wines. With high consumer demand for these luxury styles and limited supply, a chemist-turned-consultant named Otto Nadraschi advised producers that a little DEG was a harmless fix. Millions of bottles later, routine lab testing in a German supermarket brought the whole thing crashing down.

The fallout was severe - Austrian wine exports collapsed by roughly 90% overnight - but the scandal set the stage for a complete industry overhaul. Austria now operates under some of the tightest wine regulations in Europe and has rebuilt a well-deserved reputation for premium wines.

What You'll Learn in This Episode The Chemistry Behind the Fraud

• What diethylene glycol (DEG) actually is and why it was chosen
• How DEG mimicked the body and sweetness of late-harvest wines
• Why simply adding sugar wasn't enough to replicate the desired mouthfeel

The Prädikat Wine Market in the 1980s

• What Prädikat wines are: Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese
• Why German consumers were driving demand for rich, sweet wine styles
• The economics of genuine Botrytis production and why it created a supply gap
• Burgenland's reputation for Welschriesling Beerenauslese

How the Fraud Spread

• The role of chemist and consultant Otto Nadraschi in normalizing the practice
• Why producers, merchants, and consultants all became implicated
• How bulk blending and cross-border bottling in Western Germany scaled the fraud
• The food industry culture of the 1970s and 80s that helped rationalize additive use

Detection and Consequences

• How routine quality control testing in a German supermarket uncovered the scandal in June 1985
• The health effects - and the one bottle with potentially lethal DEG levels
• Prison sentences, fines, and winery closures in both Austria and Germany
• The 90% collapse in Austrian wine exports and global reputational damage
• "Glycol" being named word of the year in Western Germany in 1985

Austria's Redemption

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