This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Man finds nasty surprise in wine bottle
A man in Bristol was shocked to find a large spider in a bottle of Tesco Finest white wine he’d bought along to his mother and mother-in-law’s birthday party.
The two-inch long spider was spotted by Peter Berry’s niece when she took the bottle out of an ice bucket.
Berry told the Daily Mail: “It’s disgusting. You’d expect to find a spider in your bathroom, not in a bottle of wine.
“We were having a great time at the party until my niece found it. Like most people, she’s scared of spiders and it made her feel quite freaked out.
‘We’re just thankful she noticed it before someone poured the contents into a glass and swallowed it without realising.”
The spider has been identified as an Araneus, which is aggressive and known to bite humans though its venom is not lethal.
Tesco has advised Berry to return the bottle so that it can investigate. “We set ourselves very high standards for the safety and quality of our products,” said a spokesman.
Although unwanted in this instance, in other countries the addition of animals (venomous or otherwise) to wine to help cure various ailments is common.
Vietnam and China in particular are known for snake, lizard and scorpion “wines” and one story that went viral last year concerned a woman in northern China who was reportedly bitten by a snake that had been pickled in wine for three months.