We all know red wines do all sorts of great things for your health, leaving us us white wine drinkers left out when it comes to an easy excuse to support our drinking habits. Well, rest easy white winos- some researchers in Israel have stated they have developed a method to increase antioxidants in white wines, meaning white wine that is of similar health benefit than red wines.
Besides the obvious benefits to those of us who genuinely prefer the taste of white wines over red, this breakthrough is also very promising for those who can’t drink red wine, such as some migraine sufferers whose migraines can be exacerbated by consuming red wines.
How does this miracle of modern wine science work? Traditionally, white wines are make without the skins, while red wine is made by fermenting grape skins and juice together. The key health difference is in this difference- grape skins contain a high concentration of polyphenols, which are loaded with rich antioxidants. These scientists theorized that by attempting to extract the polyphenols from the grape skins, they would be able to add these antioxidants back into white wines.
While a step in the right direction, this process only produces roughly a quarter of the antioxidants found in red wines. As the process is refined, though, it is possible to see white wine become truly comparable to reds on their health benefits. Another caveat is that this process only produces relatively sweet, dessert wines but wine scientists are hard at work cracking the code for making dry white wine with this process. Until this new process is developed more, we recommend drinking whatever you want and remembering your vitamins in the morning.
