Which Heart Healthy Red Wine is Best??!
Answers: Being a tea totaller, i know nothing about which red wine thats heart healthy. will someone that really know for sure which i should buy pls advice me ty.
Traditional knowledge indicates that red wines are better than white. That is because the substance in the skin of the red grape is cardioprotective. White wine is made primarily with red grapes that has skin removed.
As for which red wine is better, it is up to debate. French people are said to have better heart health. Their wines include Bordeaux (Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon), Burgundy (Pinot Noir), and Rhone (Syrah, Grenache). For me and my friends, many of us are medically related, we like our Cabernet and Merlot. For a beginner drinker, you may want to start with Pinot Noir and move to Merlot.
I would suggest for Pinot Noir, Benton Lane ($25), WillaKenzie ($25), and Penner Ashe ($55). For Merlot, I would start with Mondavi Napa Merlot ($25), Markham ($25), and Flora Spring ($25).
Cheers to our heart health!
Supposedly the dryer (less sweet) reds like merlot and pinot noir are healthier, but I prefer something a little sweeter. No wine, drunk in moderation, is going to have much of an effect on your health, good or bad, IMO.
I always urge caution to people who are interested in the health benefits of drinking red wine. I happen to love red wines, but I am not too optimistic that I'm getting a huge health benefit from them other than the benefits of sharing a fine wine with good company.
Here's why:
1) The amounts of the supposedly beneficial chemicals in wine, polyphenols and resveratrol among others, are actually really small. This is true even if you go to the big, tannic monster wines from the Madiran region of Southern France made from the Tannat grape (If you're interested, a good example of this is the 2003 Montus Bouscasse Chateau Montus which is Wine Spectator Magazine's # 68 wine of 2007 at 91 points).
In order to get the proportionate amount of these chemicals that were fed to mice in studies, a human being would have to drink wine all day long and would probably still not get enough!
2) Human studies touting the benefits of red wine often used only a small number of human subjects. The smaller the number of subjects, the harder it is to prove with statistical certainty that the health benefits are true.
3) If the study involved mice rather than humans, it's really hard to prove that the same benefits would apply to humans. This is a problem that faces the pharmaceutical industry. How often have we heard of a wonder drug that cures cancer in mice, but fails to work in humans?
4) People who have never had wine probably shouldn't start drinking it purely for medicinal purposes. Part of the benefit of red wine on health is the actual enjoyment of the wine and food experience, and sharing that experience with friends and family.
5) There are, of course, harmful effects of wine as well. I'm not convinced that these risks are entirely outweighed by the benefits.
Hope that helps.
Cheers!
French Beaujolais-villages wine