Ok, I love these stories. I suspect we all love the stuff that proves our habits healthier than first imagined, especially since living a long life has supplanted living a good life as the American Holy Grail—maybe the Italian one too.
In any case, white wine has gotten a lot of press recently.
A study by the Italian Wines Union says white wine may prove to be effective in combating bird flu. Of course, that’s only because white wine has the same stuff in it as the flu vaccine Tamiflu, shikimic acid and quercitin; shortages of Chinese star anise, from which Roche gets shikimic acid, was cited as being the reason for recent shortages of Tamiflu.
Wouldn’t you want to just sit at the seashore watching the birds flutter about happily while drinking a nice, crisp white wine, rather than poping flu pills while sitting bundled up and afraid inside the house?
Then comes the story that none other then King Tut had a supply of white wine with him as he took his first steps into the afterlife.
Curious paragraph in the story though:
“Wine makers today can remove red grape skins to create white wine, but it is most unlikely that their counterparts in ancient Egypt knew how to do this, which suggests that white grapes were probably grown in Tutankhamen’s time.”
What’s so hard about removing the skins of red grapes and making wine? I mean, it’s not hard like making pyramids, right?
And finally, to capitalize on the health benefits that red wine drinkers are said to enjoy, the French have made a white wine called Paradoxe Blanc, which has four times the polyphenols of typical white wines, and just a tad less than reds. Polyphenols being the good guys, “antioxidants that mop up damaging free radicals and that may also help keep arteries clear of fat deposits.”
I gotta have a glass of wine. I gotta feel those wonderful mops coursing through my veins.
More Articles About Wine in Italy
6 Italian Wineries Not to Miss
Serralunga d'Alba: Where in Italy to Chill Out in Late Fall
The Cinque Terre Wines of Walter De Battè