White Wine Okay Too

Filed in archive Wine News on August 16, 2006

The benefits of drinking a glass or two of red wine is nothing new to most people. Even most doctors will agree that there's something about those red grapes that are good for our hearts. But, what about those who prefer white wine?

Well, according to a recent study, they no longer need to be left out. From Health News:

In another contrarian report -- this one good news for adults who like chardonnay more than merlot -- University Of Connecticut and University of Milan scientists say they have evidence that white wine may be as heart-healthy as red.

Study leader Dipak K. Das, of the University Of Connecticut School Of Medicine, says that the pulp of grapes appears just as heart-healthy in laboratory experiments as the skin.

Past studies have shown that the cardioprotective compounds in grapes -- polyphenolic antioxidants -- reside in the skin and seeds. Grape skins, which contain purple pigment, are crushed with the pulp to make red wines.

However, the skins are separated from the pulp to make most white wine, leading to the conventional belief that red wines and red grape juice are the most heart-healthy.

'Although further study is needed to identify the principle ingredients responsible for the cardioprotective abilities of the grape flesh, to the best of our knowledge, our study provides evidence for the first time that the flesh of grapes is equally cardioprotective with respect to the skins,' the researchers report in the Aug. 23 issue of the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.