Red-Wine Headache Explained – And It Is Not About Volume
US researchers say they may have discovered why some people get a headache after just one small glass of red wine, even though they are fine drinking other types of alcohol.
November 20, 2023 | Source: BBC | by Michelle Roberts
The University of California team say it is due to a compound in red grapes that can mess with how the body metabolises alcohol.
The compound is an antioxidant or flavanol called quercetin.
Cabernets from the sunny Napa Valley contain high levels of it, they say.
High-quality grapes
Red grapes make more quercetin when they are exposed to sunshine.
And that meant more expensive red wines, rather than cheap reds, would be worse for headache-prone people, one of the researchers, Prof Andrew Waterhouse, told BBC News.
“The cheap grape varieties are grown on vines with very large canopies and lots of leaves, so they don’t get as much sun,” he said. “Whereas the high-quality grapes are from smaller crops with fewer leaves.
“The amount of sunshine is carefully managed to improve the quality of the wine.”
Others are sceptical though.