But… you should know that, according to research very recently published in the journal Nature, our old pal resveratrol (a compound found in red wine, among other things) might not be the key to everlasting youth.

OMG! Who would ever have guessed such a terrible thing?! Oh wait, haven’t we been cautioning against the resveratrol craze for something like four years here on 1WD?

Anywaaaaaay… long-story-made-short, a 2006 Harvard study once found that resveratrol might increase production of proteins called sirtuins, which were found at the time to possible prolong the lives of obese mice.  Good news for you red-wine-drinking obese mice out there, or so it was thought at the time.

Turns out, according to the findings being published in Nature, the initial study might have been flawed, and all this stuff around red wine/resveratrol/sirtuins prolonging life might have been a bit overblown. Bad news for you red-wine-drinking obese mice out there. And maybe also for GlaxoSmithKline, who paid over $700 million for the company that the initial study’s author David Sinclair founded to make a drug from the substance.

NPR.org has a great detailed report on all of the above, embedded below for your listening pleasure.  I suggest relaxing with a glass of red wine while you listen to it – not because the red wine will make you live longer, but because the relaxing might help you live longer (or if not, at least help you enjoy the moment a bit more than usual).

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Resveratrol, Red Wine And The Fountain Of Youth from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

But I ran into some trouble when I hopped onto the Molly Dooker website to learn a bit more about why they use nitrogen in the winemaking process in the first place.  Not technical trouble, but accuracy trouble.

The accuracy trouble is that their explanation contains less truth than it does (as Steven Colbert likes to put it) truthiness.

Here’s the explanation, given both on the Molly Dooker website and in the demonstration video of the Molly Dooker shake; I’ve added comments to the quote below to indicate the parts that as far as I can tell have Truth and those that have truthiness:

“Why do we use Nitrogen gas in our winemaking? Sulphites are often added to wine after fermentation to protect the wine from oxidation [Truth]. The only problem is that some people have an allergy to high levels of sulphites [Truth] and may get headaches [truthiness - if they mean getting headaches from sulphites, that is]. By using Nitrogen to protect the wine during winemaking, we can use less sulphites [Truth] and more people can enjoy our wines [truthiness].”

Now… let’s break this truth vs. truthiness down in a little more detail…

Exposure to sulfites in drinks and food can indeed cause a severe (and in very rare cases fatal) asthmatic reaction. But before you start pouring all of your fine wine down the sink drain, you should know that only 0.01% – 01.0% of the U.S. population is estimated to be allergic to sulfites (probably fewer than 1 in 100 people).

I’ve tackled this subject before, but I figured it bears repeating in this case so I hope you’ll forgive the rehash of some rather old-ish content (downright ancient content, in blog-o-world terms!):

If you’re even an occasional wine drinker, chances are that you’ve heard the rumor that sulfites in wine cause headaches. Despite being popular in the rumor mill, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that ‘wine headaches’ are caused by sulfites. In fact, if you do get headaches when drinking wine, chances are higher that the headache could be a reaction to any of several esters (flavor compounds) that occur naturally in wine. Chances are greater still that you simply have a hangover (so drink more water next time, my party-loving friend, or – egads! – drink less wine).

Now back to the chemistry: sulfites are produced naturally during the fermentation process (so you probably are exposed to them in some beers, soy sauces, and other fermented liquids). The amount produced naturally is pretty small – anywhere from 6 to 40 ppm (parts per million). PPM is roughly equivalent to 1 milligram of something in 1 liter of water. Another way to think about it – 1 ppm is about 4 drops of ink in a 55 gallon barrel of water. Dangerous if you’re talking about arsenic, but not so much when you’re talking sulfites.

U.S. government regulations stipulate that wines containing 10 ppm or more of sulfites need to display a warning on the bottle, in order to alert consumers that are allergic to sulfites. Since more than 10 ppm are created during fermentation, and given that the labels don’t have to specify the amount of sulfites the wine contains, that pretty much means every bottle of wine needs to carry the warning – effectively making the warning a bit useless and confusing consumers that may not be allergic to sulfites.

Sulfites are also added during the winemaking process, which can up the ppm of the sulfites in your wine (the U.S. government allows up to about 300+ ppm). Why do winemakers do this? They’ve been doing it for hundreds of years – the first historical record of its use in winemaking is from a royal German decree in 1487 – in order to kill bacteria, prevent browning of wine form oxidation, and to help stabilize the finished wine. The 1487 decree specifies use of about 19 ppm of sulfer, which according to wine writer Hugh Johnson (in his Story of Wine) is an “improbably low” amount.

Bottom line: sulfites probably aren’t giving you headaches; and if you had an allergy to sulfites, you are likely already on a restricted diet because many, many other food products would probably have almost killed you via a severe respiratory reaction before you ever had any wine.

Thus endeth the diatribe, err, lesson of sorts.

Cheers!

(images: mollydooker.com)

Copyright © 2011. Originally at What You Need To Know About Sulfites In Wine (Molly Dooker Shake Edition) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

As my twitter friends are already (painfully) aware, I’ve been sick for the better part of two weeks.  What began as a bout with either a bad cold or a mild flu became a full-on assault from a (very) nasty case of bronchitis.  Fever, coughing, meds, antibiotics, and definitely no wine.

It was suggested to me by a few folks via twitter that I should write about the experience of my forced abstinence.  Initially I was hesitant, because no one wants to read about somebody hacking up brown goo, getting no sleep, and taking various meds – well, maybe only medical students, and they’re sure to find more interesting (read: more virulent, nasty and violent) cases than mine.

I promise no references to sticky brown lung goo.  Or does that last sentence count?

Anyway… truth be told, I needed the break from booze, because I’ve been doing too much wine drinking and not enough wine tasting, and that was seriously messing with my cholesterol numbers.  But little did I know that my 12 days of forced abstinence would involve codeine, glam-metal icons KISS, and actual gratitude towards my illness. 

I am serious about the gratitude.  And about KISS.  And the Humpty Dance.  This will all make sense in a minute or two… or maybe not, I dunno, I was pretty hopped up on some codeine meds.

So, here it is, because you asked for it – my pseudo-diary from “The 12 Days of Abstinence!”…

Day 1: Participate in On-line Wines of Chile Carmenere tasting, mostly because it will be a cool event and extremely rude to back out at this point.  Spit every drop, which is the equivalent to cruel and unusual self-punishment.

Day 2: Reschedule wine reviews for the week after realizing that any beverage will simply taste like snot.  Turn down tasting events.  Lie to yourself that this will “all be over with soon enough.’”

Day 3: Run out of tissues attempting (in vain) to stem tide of brown goo (whoops!  sorry!) evil nasal mucus spawn. 

Day 4: Review recap. of amazing foodbuzz.com blogger festival in San Fran, which can be followed live via twitter since you aren’t sleeping anyway.  Become starving in middle of the night due to pictures and real-time descriptions of incredible food and Bonny Doon wines.  Contemplate punching yourself in the head repeatedly until you pass out so that you can get some rest, but abandon plan when you realize that would actually require having physical strength.  Sob uncontrollably.

Day 5: Become scapegoat for any twitter friends who are now also sick “@1WineDude is spreading twitter germs!”  Entertain temporary fear that if female twitter friends become pregnant, that you will somehow also be implicated.  Draft “it wasn’t me!” tweets, just in case.

Day 6: Realize (yet again) how amazing some other wine blogs really are, and appreciate their authors’ talents for being able to convey the essence of wines without you actually having the opportunity to taste them (the wines, not the authors).

Day 7: Realize that not only is wine out of the question, but antibiotics are going to be needed.  Sigh.  Take codeine meds prescribed by nice medical professional.  Start to have thoughts that are not entirely normal.  Realize that your nose is on fire from blowing it every 25 seconds, and it needs protection, like that guy Humpty from Digital Underground had covering his nose. Sing a song.  Maybe a song like this:

My nose is big, uh-uh, I’m not ashamed
Big like a pickle, I’m still gettin’ paid
I get laid by the ladies, ya know I’m in charge,
both how I’m livin’ and my nose is large!
I get stoopid, I shoot an arrow like Cupid,
I use a word that don’t mean nothin’, like looptid
I sang on Doowhutchalike, and if ya missed it,
I’m the one who said just grab ‘em in the biscuit!
Also told ya that I like to bite
Well, yeah, I guess it’s obvious, I also like to write.
All ya had to do was give Humpty a chance
and now I’m gonna do my dance!

Day 8: “And on the 8th Day… God created Rock N’ Roll!” – KISS, from Lick It Up (told you we’d get KISS involved in there…).

Day 9: Unpack wine samples, read enclosed material about meticulously crafted, low-production CA wine.  Drool.  Weep.  Repeat sequence.  Take more codeine meds.

Day 10: Stay in bed, on steady diet of codeine meds.  Discuss the real meaning of lyrics from Beatles’ album Revolver with Paul Newman, Einstein and Jesus Christ in dream.   Premature enlightenment attained.

Day 11: Acceptance of reality of being sick achieved, but only because antibiotics are taking effect and fever is down.  Drat.

Day 12: Offer up sincere gratitude to the Universe for having been sick, as this has highlighted the miracle of actually being able to use your sense of smell, and thus appreciate wine.  And it really is a bit of a miracle, isn’t it?  Have a beer (but only one) to celebrate a moment of actual enlightenment.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at The 12 Days of Abstinence from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

As many frequent 1WineDude readers already know, I recently lost my grandmother to Alzheimer’s disease.  She died at the age of 96 – but the truth is, she was dead years before that, bedridden and unable to care for herself or recognize her loved ones.  Caring for her placed an almost unbearable emotional toll on my family.

I would LOVE for my family to be one of the last who ever had to go through that.

So on World Alzheimer’s Day, I’m asking you to help me KICK ALZHEIMER’S ASS!

YOU can help, and it’s easy. go to the Help 1WineDude Kick Alzheimer’s Ass donation page, and make a donation.

Together, we’re gonna raise $10,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association.  That’s right – 10Gs!  Seems like a big number, but look at it this way:

If everyone who visited 1WineDude.com in a month donated just $1, we’d beat that goal already.

I’m asking YOU to donate a buck.

If you’ve ever had a friend, loved one, or colleague who’s been touched by this disease – and chances are, that’s everyone reading this – then donate.

Donate now – not later, not when you can get around to it, I’m asking you to do it RIGHT NOW.  You will NOT miss that dollar, and you’ll be helping to make the world a better place – we can all toast to that!

If you want to link back to this post to help spread the word, that’s great.  If you want to tweet the link, or throw it into your next facebook update – also great.  But what we really, really, really need is for you to throw a buck into the collective pot – that would do more good than all of the tweeting and facebooking that you could muster.

So donate now – let’s Kick Alzheimer’s ass today!

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Help 1WineDude Kick Alzheimer’s Ass! from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

Some of you out there reading this who may be in the wine trade will already know some of what I’m about to unfold here on the virtual pages of 1WineDude.com.  To those people I say this: chime in with some comments to help those who are soon to step into danger’s path.

Some of you, who are new to the trade, or are eager and enthusiastic consumers who are planning to attend a wine tasting event during which you may have the opportunity to taste upwards of 100+ wines in a short amount of time.  To those people I say this: read on and pay attention – it just might save you some pain.  Some real pain.

As the bards AC/DC said, “For those about to Rock – We Salute You!”

Anyway… I’m not talking about the fact that you need to pace yourself when tasting dozens and dozens of wines, or the hazard of your judgment becoming impaired due to absorbing alcohol through your mouth even if you spit all or most of your tastings.

I’m also not talking about the potential staining of your teeth from tasting a ton of red wine (though that is certainly an occupational hazard, though a temporary one).

Nope – I’m talking about something more… insidious…

I’m talking about the fact that wine tasting – red or white – at high volume absolutely wrecks your mouth, almost as raucously as AC/DC’s Angus Young wrecks your eardrums in concert with the insanely loud and blazing power of his Rock.

Almost.

To make a long story short, the low pH levels found in wine can cause your gums to recede (exposing sensitive parts of your teeth root structures) and tooth erosion – in some causes, eroding teeth instantaneously.

The effect of this varies based on an individual’s sensitivity and their normal amount of saliva, which acts to protect tooth enamel and help to mitigate the negative impact of acid in the mouth when pH levels get too low.  According to The Adelaidean:

“Wine makers, wine judges and wine marketers’ chosen profession puts them at a higher risk of tooth erosion, but it is a problem that can be reduced, according to Dr Diane Hunt, a senior lecturer in Restorative Dentistry at the University of Adelaide.

Tooth erosion can affect anybody’s teeth. It is an irreversible process, which rapidly occurs when acids, commonly from food and drink, are present in the mouth.

When these acids are present and the pH level of the solution that bathes the teeth gets below 4.5 teeth start to erode. The acids dissolve calcium and phosphate from enamel surfaces and expose the dentine, which is a very sensitive tooth material, causing tooth sensitivity.

Because the pH level of wines can range from 3.2 to 3.8, with sparkling wines as low as 2.8, instantaneous erosion can occur in susceptible people.”

This topic has been covered before by other wine writers, and I noticed that Alder Yarrow at Vinography.com has experienced the same thing I have after tasting lots and lots of acidic whites – severe tooth sensitivity.  I also find that wine tasting makes the inside of my mouth rawer than an Angus Young guitar solo, taking several days, at a minimum, to recover.

The Adelaidean article goes on to note that Dr. Hunt recommends that wine tasters not brush their teeth before bouts of serious wine tasting, in order to let an extra layer of plaque help to protect their teeth.  Strangely, I haven’t been able to find any serious tasters who back that view – in fact, they tend to recommend just the opposite.

Take George Miliotes, Master Sommelier and Director of beverage and hospitality for the Seasons 52 restaurant chain, for example.

“I brush my teeth several times a day” he told me recently during a dinner at Season 52’s new Cherry Hill, NJ location.  He was talking about how he keeps his palate from fatiguing and his teeth from aching when he works with winemakers during the blending process (George blends wine on location that make up two of Season 52’s exclusive by-the-glass pours, from the Mosel and Jumilla, respectively), during which he tastes hundreds of samples.

Which brings us to the Secret Weapon portion of our post.

What is THE tool needed to help stave off the nasty destruction of your pearly whites during an intensive wine tasting?  A damn good toothbrush.

Personally, my gums were in sad, sad shape a few years ago, to the point where my dentist was uttering phrases like “gum surgery” which sounded very, very painful.  I invested in an OralB electric toothbrush, and have never looked back (the gums are now in tip-top shape, by the way).

Probably not the advice you were expecting, but if you’re going to taste a ton of wine, it’s the advice that you need to hear.

For those about to brush – WE SALUTE YOU!

FIIIIIIRE! 

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Cheers!

(images: flikr.com, nataliedee.com)

Copyright © 2011. Originally at The Real Hidden Danger of Wine Tasting (and THE Essential Tool for Protection) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!