Science 2.0 has more on the discovery of lots of phthalates in fine European wines:
It isn’t just the booze itself, a group of scholars contends it’s the packaging. Phthalate compounds are widespread in our environment and present in many plastics. Obviously, any toxicity of phthalates varies depending on their chemical composition and some compounds are considered to be potential hormone disruptorrs, so they are regulated on an international level, including for those likely to come into contact with food and drink packaging.
A study published in Food Additives&Contaminants: Part A analyzed phthalate concentrations in a variety of French wines and spirits and found that 59% of the wines analyzed contained significant quantities of one particular form of phthalate, dibutyl phthalate, and only 17% did not contain any detectable quantity of at least one of the reprotoxic phthalates.
“Reprotoxic” means they change our sexual characteristics, basically.
The study is published over here. Two key lines: “The aged grape spirits analysed were often excessively contaminated with DiBP, which is not permitted to be used in contact with food,” and “the epoxy resin coatings used on vats represented the major source of contamination.”