The Wine Headache Hazard

No one can work with wine without tipping back too much from time to time. The morning after. The headache, the nausea, and the sun, as Nicholas Klar once wrote, "is like God's flashlight." Nobody to blame but yourself.

But what if the pain isn't your fault? What if you only had a glass or two and your head feels like Zeus on Athena’s birthday? At a wine tasting I led, two different people shared versions of, "I like wine -- but I can't drink it. If I even sip the stuff, I get a massive headache." Is there a code we can crack to avoid this malady?

One explanation I hear often: "It's the sulfites in the wine! Red wine has all these sulfites in the U.S. I've gone to [insert European country of your choice here] and the wine doesn't have sulfites in it, so I can drink it just fine. And I can drink white wine until the cows come home, but red wines just lay me out." I do enjoy Italian whites, so I sampled Palazzone 2015 “Terre Vineate” Orvieto Classico Superiore. ($13-15) This wine has a nose of flowers and licorice. It's medium bodied with some soft citrusy flavors and a little bit of oak. It has a very easy finish. Tasty to drink on its own, but with shellfish or a light fish dish, it's very nice.

After a little digging into the sulfite question, I discovered there is such a thing as a sulfite allergy. So, find unsulfited wines and you're fine, right? Well, not exactly. Sulfite allergies are  pretty rare. People with sulfite allergies generally can't eat dried fruit and the like, and if their allergies kick in, they tend to end up with breathing problems, not headaches.

Still, if you want to avoid sulfites, stick to whites, right? Wrong. White wines almost always have more sulfites than red wines. Sulfites are preservatives. Whites, in general, need more protection from spoilage as the wine gets older. Red wine has a natural preservative built in to the mix: tannin, which comes from the skins of grapes as well as from barrel aging. Wines built to age well are usually tannic, so…maybe tannin is our headache culprit.

For a low tannin wine example, think something along the lines of DuBoeuf 2015 Brouilly Beaujolais ($15-17). Gamay grapes, from which Beaujolais is made, are naturally low in tannin. This wine sports a fairly strong nose of cherries and blackberries. There's plenty of cherry and cola flavors balanced nicely with a solid acidity. Nice crisp finish, too. It cuts nicely through spices, like in the Thai beef noodle soup I made to go with it.

Drinking tannic beverages – drinks like red wine, black tea, and coffee -- can cause a release of serotonin in the brain, and studies have shown that high levels of serotonin can trigger a migraine. However, wine's not the only source of tannin in one’s diet, and no one I know has ever complained of a coffee or chocolate headache.

A third possibility is histamines. Histamines occur in many fermented foods and high exposure levels can trigger an allergic reaction brought on by a lack of a certain enzyme in the bloodstream. This reaction can cause headaches, skin flushing, or runny nose. The levels of histamines in red wines are between 20-200% higher than in whites. Spanish reds are often lower in histamines, so I tried the Martin Codax 2014 "Ergo" Rioja Tempranillo. ($13-15) The nose contains dark fruit and spices, almost like cherry cobbler. The wine's lighter than it smells. Some nice berry flavors and well-balanced light tannins lead to a finish which is easy and somewhat dry.

Histamines seem a somewhat more likely culprit for the headaches, although there hasn't been conclusive research on the effects of low vs. high histamine wines. Even so, if a person is susceptible to the reaction, there are natural defenses against histamines. Compounds exist in tea, especially black or oolong tea, which suppress the histamine response. Drinking a cup of strong tea before consuming red wine might help, as could taking an aspirin before drinking. An antihistamine might also stop the headache if the headache has already kicked in, but you might be in for a very short night if you pop a Benadryl after a couple of glasses of wine.

If you are one of those unfortunate souls who thinks they suffer from "red wine headaches," there's a simple (potentially painful) test. Drink half a glass of red wine on an empty stomach. If the wine is truly the cause of your headache, you'll get one within 15 minutes. Otherwise, it's not the wine itself that buried a hatchet in your forehead.

More likely, your fear of headaches likely stems from a good old fashioned hangover. The sheer amount of wine, and the memory of the pain the next morning, probably has more to do with it. B-12, Gatorade, ginger ale, and a sub from Penn Station the next morning are better bets, in that case.

Wine Over Water -- the followup.

Last week’s Wine over Water event went well. The week before the event, the remnants of Hurricane Ike slammed Cincinnati with an awful windstorm. Over a million people were without power for some period of time. One of the last places to regain power was the Purple People Bridge – the staging area for our little shindig. Thanks to a generator for the band, some well-placed arc lamps, candles, and the ambient light of the Cincinnati skyline, the show went on…

There were five Kentucky wineries and four “international” pouring stations. Of the Kentucky wineries, by far the most pleasant surprise was Shandio Valley Winery. Hailing from Carrollton, KY – these folks hadn’t knuckled under to the market for puckeringly sweet fruit wines that many of the other local wineries crank out. Their Riesling Reserve was Alsace-style…bone dry, yet with a very pleasant fruit nose and well-balanced palate. They also were pouring their “Ted’s Red” – one of the lightest-in-color Grenaches I’ve ever seen. Despite the color, the body was full of fruit, and the finish held up more strongly than I expected. Best part – both these wines were under $15, so they receive the Vine’s seal of approval. If you’re headed down towards Louisville, stop in and see Harold and Jami. They’ll treat you right.

The other local wineries? Most of their wines were well out of our price range, and few of the wines were exceptional enough to really comment on extensively. Wineries should not be selling bottles of Chambourcin or Norton for $20. Period.

As for the other pouring stations, we had two reds and two whites, the offerings were:

Alice White 2007 Shiraz – a pleasant enough sluggable red. A pretty typical Australian Shiraz – lots of fruit, some tannin and vanilla at the end. Simple and drinkable. $8-9.

Woodbridge 2006 Pinot Noir – of the “international” wines, this one was my least favorite. To me, it came across as a pinot noir trying to be a merlot and just missing. I usually don’t think “fruit bomb” and “pinot noir” together, but this was about as close as one can get. I would guess you’d need to decant the heck out of it to get to any complexity, but if you just want something you can throw back for $6-7, it’s OK.

Ruffino 2007 Orvieto Classico – I really preferred the whites to the reds that were selected for this event. I didn’t have any input into what we ended up pouring, largely because…well…I was in the Mediterranean when they made these decisions. But this wine took me back to the ship again. We were initially scheduled to go to Orvieto on our trip but our tour was cancelled. Alas. This wine is probably a good indication of what we’d have encountered. Fresh nose, light, appley and crisp to taste – this is an extremely refreshing wine that goes extremely well with any fish or light soup. $7-9.

Monkey Bay 2007 Sauvignon Blanc – This was the wine that I became most familiar with as the evening went along, since I was stealing sips from the bottle for much of the evening…to keep my palate sharp, of course. This Kiwi offering is fun in a bottle. A classic Marlborough sauvignon blanc -- full of grapefruit, pineapple, mango, and almost any other tropical fruit you might want to list. The palate had some weight to it, and it didn’t finish as crisply as many sauvignons, but it was still a fun wine. From the reactions of the folks at the event, I had a number of people tell me that this wine was the “best on the bridge.” I would concur after my samplings. $9-11.

By the time we finished the strike of the event and everyone had gathered for a farewell drink on the patio of one of the organizers, we were all happily exhausted. It’s always good to see an event go off well – especially when there’s no electricity!

Same time next year, everyone – put it on your calendar and join us…


Stumble It!

The Whites of Their Eye-talians

"Wine Guy," I was asked recently, "You've been writing a fair bit about Italian reds...what about the whites?"

Fair question. I know I've snagged a couple of them here and there as I've gone through the world of wine, but I haven't really focused much on them. Most of what I know about Italian whites can be summed up as follows: "Italian white. Pinot grigio. Light. Dry. Tart." End of line.

I've walked past the Italian white section in wine stores again and again. I see row after row of pinot grigio, as well as "Soave" and a number of grapes ending in vowels. There's also the the Italian naming convention, by which the wines are named after the region in which they're grown -- and you've got a pretty confusing slate for a beginner to digest. There are literally hundreds of indiginous grapes in Italy, and almost all of them have ended up as white wine at one point or another.

The wine gurus haven't been much help, either. Looking to two of my go-to sources for information, Andrea Immer Robinson writes in Great Wine Made Simple, "The Italians...just do not care about white wine. Not that plenty of it isn't made, but much is for export and for cheap, refreshing drinking...The rest is meant to employ gallons of mediocre-quality juice from vineyards whose output used to go into Italy's famous reds (to their detriment) before the recent quality evolution." (p.210)

Kevin Zraly's Complete Wine Course puts it more succinctly: "The Italians traditionally do not put the same effort into making their white wines as they do their reds -- and they are the first to admit it." (p.143)

Thankfully, as Dear Andrea mentioned, the revolution in wine-producing techniques made it to Italy, just as it has given us distinct bottles of yumminess from all over the world. While Italian wines are still generally light, crisp sipping wines, a wine shopper now has a little more variety from which to choose. The main thing to remember is the basic law of Italian wine -- What's for dinner? That'll give you a pretty good idea of what to expect, taste-wise, since the wine's made to go with the food. Let's have a look at three of the major growing areas...

Anselmi 2006 "San Vincenzo" Veneto – Veneto, the northeastern Italian region home to Venice, Vivaldi, and Roberto Baggio, is best known in the wine world for Valpolicella (a light, fruity red) and Amarone (a tarry, tannic monster). The best known white grape from there is Garganega, the backbone of soave, an unoaked, uncomplicated wine. This wine is a close cousin. The Anselmi is 80% Garganega, 15% Chardonnay, and 5% Trebbiano. It has a clean nose of peaches and grapefruit. The body is medium-to-rich with an interesting mix of acidity and sweetness on the finish. On it’s own, a very enjoyable wine. However, with a pungent fish dish, this wine shines even more. Sardines and shellfish are common in Venetian cooking, and we had this wine with an anchovy-sauced & breadcrumbed pasta. The wine cut through the fish's oil, enhancing the flavors before cutting through it into a nice, fruity mellow finish. A great pairing. $7-10.

Batasiolo 2006 Gavi – I talked about Piedmont a couple of installments ago. Piedmont is home to some of the more powerful wines in Italy, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the whites. Gavi is largely made from the Cortese grape, indigenous to the region. Considering the foods of the region – cheeses, ham, root vegetables, and mushrooms, I figured the wines would either be acidic like a pinot grigio or in the Riesling neighborhood. The verdict? Somewhere in the middle. The Gavi had a light, citrusy, grapefruity nose. It was medium boded with flavors of lemon and vanilla. It sported a crisp, tart finish. I found it to be more along the lines of a sauvignon-blanc. Very refreshing and more complex than the Veneto. Unfortunately, I didn’t cook anything up to go along with it. I had it with the leftovers of the aforementioned anchovy pasta. It had enough acidity to cut through the fish, but the tartness of the wine stood out more. It would be a very solid pairing with anything that you’d have with a sauvignon blanc. $12-14.

Fontana Candida 2006 Orvieto Classico – Orvieto is in Umbria, an inland province sitting just next to Tuscany. Umbrian cuisine tends to be boiled or roasted, with vegetables and game strongly represented. Lentils are a staple of the diet there. It has a light, flowery nose with just a little bit of citrus. The flavors and acidity are similar to a pinot grigio, but with a little more body, so it's a bit bolder at first taste. This makes sense, since a light pinot grigio would likely get buried by the heavier nature of the food. The finish is still tart and crisp. A nice alternative if you want a white wine with something a little heavier. I did a throw-together salad of creole boiled shrimp, pineapple, shallots and red pepper with cider vinegar, fish sauce, and some spices (Yes, I was cleaning out the kitchen…) It worked well – although I shouldn’t have initially put it over greens. $9-11.

On a personal note -- many thanks to John & Jean Rosenberg. On this date in 1970, the three of us responded to a request from my grandfather. He let my folks know after Passover the night before that he "did not plan to go back to North Carolina without seeing his grandson."

At 6:40 am, we obliged.

"Crap! What did I do to myself?"

Hangovers -- a hazard of the occupation.

No one can work with wine without tipping back too much from time to time. The morning after. The headache, the nausea, and the sun, as Nicholas Klar wrote, "is like God's flashlight." Nobody to blame but yourself.

But what if the pain isn't your fault? What if you only had a glass or two and your head feels like John Bonham has been using your forehead for a snare? I've had more than one person say to me, "I like red wine -- but I can't drink it. If I even sip the stuff, I get a massive headache." At the wine salon, two different people told me versions of that very thing. The "red wine headache" is a not uncommon malady. I wanted to see if, as a public service, I could track down the cause. After all, what good is wine if you can't enjoy it?

The first explanation I generally stumble across: "It's the sulfites in the wine! Red wine has all these sulfites in the U.S. I've gone to [insert European country of your choice here] and the wine doesn't have sulfites in it, so I can drink it just fine. And I can drink white wine until the cows come home, but red wines just lay me out." So, to cover my bases, I decided to go with an imported white wine. I used Il Palazzone 2006 Orvieto Classico Superiore Terre Vineate for this. ($10-13) It's a very flavorful white wine. (Side note: I'm warming more and more to Italian whites these days.) This wine has a nose of flowers and licorice. It's medium bodied with some soft citrusy flavors and a little bit of oak. It has a very easy finish. Tasty to drink on its own, but with shellfish or a light fish dish, it's very nice.

I thought I'd solved the mystery. Find unsulfited wines and you're fine, right? There are some of them out there. Unfortunately, a little more research turned up one very interesting fact: White wines almost always have more sulfites than red wines.

There is such a thing as a sulfite allergy -- it usually causes breathing problems. It's also a pretty rare condition. These are generally people who can't eat dried fruit and the like, since it causes them breathing problems. Why more sulfites in whites? Sulfites are used as preservatives. Red wine has a natural preservative built in, generally. Tannin. Wines that age well are usually tannic, so…maybe avoiding tannic wines might stop the headaches.

For a low tannin wine, I used DuBoeuf Domaine de Grand Croix 2006 Brouilly Beaujolais. ($10-13) This wine is darker in color and somewhat richer than many Beaujolais. It sports a fairly strong nose of cherries and blackberries. There's plenty of fruit balanced nicely with a solid acidity. Nice crisp finish, too. It cuts nicely through spices. I made a Thai beef noodle soup with it, and it was very tasty.

Tannins are known to cause a release of serotonin in the brain. High levels of serotonin can trigger a migraine. However, wine's not the only source of tannin in a diet, and no one's ever complained of a tea or chocolate headache. So, back to the drawing board.

A third possibility is histamines. Histamines can trigger an allergic reaction in some people, brought on by a lack of a certain enzyme in the bloodstream. This reaction can cause headaches, as well as flushing or runny nose. The levels of histamines in red wines are between 20-200% higher than in whites. Spanish reds are often lower in histamines, so I went with the Martin Codax 2005 "Ergo" Rioja Tempranillo. ($10-12) The Codax albarino went very well with New Year's dinner for us, and the Tempranillo was also quite positive. The nose was of dark fruit and spices, almost like cherry cobbler. The wine's lighter than it smells. Some nice berry flavors and well-balanced light tannins.The finish is easy and somewhat dry.

Histamines seem to be a somewhat more likely culprit for these headaches, although there hasn't been conclusive research on low vs. high histamine wines. Even so, defense against histamines may fight off some of the headaches. A person can drink a cup of strong black tea before drinking red wine. A compound in black tea suppresses a histamine response. Aspirin before drinking can also help, although aspirin after the headache kicks in won't help. An antihistamine might stop the headache. However, because of the alcohol, you might be in for a very short night if you pop a Benadryl and down a couple of glasses of wine.

If you are one of those unfortunate souls that suffer from "red wine headaches," there's a simple (potentially painful) test. Drink half a glass of red wine. If the wine is truly the cause of your headache, then you'll get one within 15 minutes. Otherwise, it's not the wine -- it's probably the amount of it that you drank that fateful night. B-12, Gatorade, ginger ale, and a sub from Penn Station the next morning are better bets to help you out. If you determine that it's actually the wine causing your suffering, try the black tea or the aspirin. After all, why should headsplitting pain be a barrier from enjoying the good stuff?

h/t to Dr. Tom for the post title...

Back to the Boot

I'm still getting the hang of Italian wines.

When "in the know" wine folks talk about the "finest wines in the world," the debate generally centers on Italy and France. Wine connoisseurs talk about Italian wines' unmatched complexity, the wonders of aging for decades, the depth of flavor, the sheer artistry that is the ancient craft of winemaking in Italy.

The first time I tasted Barolo, the Italian "wine of kings," I nearly choked. THIS is supposed to be the best wine in the world?" Granted, I've come a long way. As time's gone by, I've worked on my learning curve of appreciation for the -- shall we say -- interesting flavors of Italian and French wine.

Also, like many people, I usually considered Chianti (as I did at the Vine's early roots) when ordering or making Italian. Of course, there's a lot more to Italian food than the familiar Tuscan recipes we often see, so don't paint yourself into a corner -- all due respect to Chianti, of course.

When the SPinC and I did our first Italian wine and food pairing cookfest, we discovered many Italian wines are either very affordable or very expensive -- there's not a lot in between. Finding wines that are decent, drinkable, and affordable is a challenge. In the $10-15 range, there's surprisingly little. You've got your very inexpensive wines, and then you've got your garden variety Barolo, which will run you $50 or more. (Although I found a very decent Barolo at Trader Joe's for $25 that was divine with a roasted lamb steak.) Research is necessary.

When I think about buying Italian wine, I keep a few simple things in mind:

1) Italians are foodies. They have been for millennia. They're also fiercely territorial. If you ever get into a food conversation with just about anyone of Italian heritage, they'll tell you the food on "Nonna's table" was REAL Italian. As I've mentioned before, people make wines that go with whatever they happen to be cooking -- so if you know the menu, choose accordingly. Italian wines, like French wines, are generally named for the place they're made, so let that be your guide.

2) Just as Italians made wine to complement the food they were making at the time, they also made their wine to go best with food. I have yet to run into many Italian wines that I would have as a "drink at the end of the day" wine. Put them with the right food, and squisto!

3) Decant, decant, decant. Italian wine is built to age, so when you open it, you need to let it wake from its slumber. A good rule of thumb for the wines we'll be looking at is to crack the bottle 20-30 minutes before you pour.

Here are a few alternatives:

Ruffino 2005 Orvieto Classico ($7-10) -- Orvieto is in Umbria, one of Tuscany's neighboring provinces. Umbria is entirely landlocked, about in the "calf" of the boot. Foodwise, Umbria is known for pork products like salami and prosciutto, lots of vegetables, and earthy additions like mushrooms and truffles. The city of Orvieto is known largely for its white wine. One of the first wine books I really looked at was by Kevin Zraly. He said, "The Italians traditionally do not put the same effort into making their white wines that they do with their reds…and they are the first to admit it." But there's money in the global white wine market continues to globalize, and the Italians are taking advantage.

The Ruffino has a nice nose -- light and floral with a scent of honey. It's fruity, slightly citrusy, but not incredibly dry -- in the ballpark of a rich Sauvignon Blanc. It had a refreshing finish with a little citrus tang and smooth flavors of melon. Like Sauvignon Blanc, this would be a very food friendly wine. Foodwise, think about light pork or rich chicken dishes, meaty fishes, or even salads. The acidity in this wine would be able to stand up to things like asparagus.

Pala Triente 2004 Cannonau Di Sardegna ($11-13) -- That's "Sardinia" to we barbarians. I've heard a lot of people confuse Sardinia and Sicily. Sicily is the island perpetually getting booted. Sardinia is the island halfway up the boot off the Eastern coast. While the cuisine of Sardegna is steeped in fish, much of it is hearty and savory, both with meat (roast boar on a spit is a national tradition) and vegetables (stews and soups with earthy vegetables and beans).

This wine is largely (95%) made from the Cannonau grape, known to the rest of the world as Grenache -- the other 5% is other native varietals. Interesting to note -- this is a macerated wine. Maceration is the same process the French use to make Beaujolais. The result is a very interesting red. When poured, it's extremely light and the nose is very fragrant. It reminds me of a Beaujolais cru. The flavor is very Italian -- earthy, with berries calling for food. The finish then turns a little bit dry. We had this with a spicy chicken chili. You could certainly have it with a red sauced pasta, aged cheese, or fish in a nice sauce.

Michele Chiarlo 2004 Barbera D'Asti ($12-14) -- First off, the "Asti" does not refer to sweet champagne here. It's a town in the Piedmont province in northernmost Italy nestled against the Alps (Piedmont translates as "the foot of the mountains"). The Piedmont produces much of the very expensive wine I mentioned earlier. The nebbiolo grape is used to make Barolo and Barbaresco, the most prized wines of Italy. Fortunately, some of the "lesser" wines are more than adequate. Piedmont cooking is very earthy. Truffles are a major export of the area. Lots of cream, butter, garlic, and cheese find their way into the meals. Olives and rice are also produced in quantity.

I find the Barbera produces a wine like a fruity, amped Cotes-du-Rhone. There's a nice nose on this wine. It's a slightly alcoholic, very fruity, floral experience. The flavor is full of bright fruit -- like a cross between Beaujolais and a Cotes-du-Rhone. The finish is easy and fruity -- cherries and blackberries. We tried this with a pasta with an olive tapenade and seared tuna -- it was wonderful, just as it was with some chocolate covered dried fruit we had. Pair it with just about anything that includes some of the above ingredients and you'll be just fine. Also, like Beaujolais or Cotes-du-Rhone, you could drink it on its own.

Until next time…buon' appetito!