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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.
Is he aware of how local the spider is? It probably only travelled a few miles from Avonmouth to Bristol – probably visiting local relatives!!
Aye, was to visit his Mother in Law, she’s a “Black Widow” 🙂
well, poor spider, but what a way to go! and to put this incident into perspective, how many bottles does Tesco sell each year? one incident is one to many, but in view of their volume a non issue.
Nico McGough Holland
Most wines have legs, but not necessarily 8.
Spiders are sacred animals, I would just return the bottle for a replacement and not make any fuss about it.
The spider in the bottle would not affect the safety of the wine. Any pathogens would be killed by the wine in a few minutes and the spider would also be free of any pathogens after being soaked in the wine. From the above responses no one is taking any of it serious.
Lots of people go out of their way to get a worm or scorpion in their liquor, this dude got it for free lol its like u have to drink it now!