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As clear as white wine, but as healthy as red Researchers have developed a new fermenting process that yields white wine rich in antioxidants WASHINGTON - Aficionados of white wine can take heart. Scientists have devised a way to make white wine that boasts health benefits similar to red wine, which may help ward off heart disease. Recent research published in the Journal Of Agricultural And Food Chemistry details a process that yields white wine rich in antioxidants, much like red wine already is. White wine is made without the use of grape skins, unlike red wine. The skins give red wine its colour and contain the highest concentration of polyphenols, which are potent antioxidants. Researchers, led by biochemist Michael Avi- ram of the Rambam Medical Centre in Haifa, Israel, had developed a method to make white wine which exploited the grape skins. Mr Aviram said oxidised cholesterol in the blood is deposited in the arteries and can cause blockages and heart attacks. He said: 'To prevent this oxidation, we need to consume antioxidants, preferably natural antioxidants from fruits and vegetables. 'The people in southern France, even though they eat fatty food, get almost one-fifth the rate of heart attacks as, say, the people in Finland, who also eat fatty food. 'Studies show that it has to do with the consumption of red wine in southern France.' Some researchers argue that the link between wine consumption and the reduced risk of heart disease remains unproven in the absence of long-term human clinical trials. But Mr Aviram felt he could increase antioxidants in white wine by extracting more grape-skin polyphenols during processing. His research team used whole, squeezed grapes and incubated them for up to 18 hours in the presence of alcohol before removing the skins. This resulted in an increase of white-wine polyphenols of up to six times the normal level and exhibited antioxidant activity similar to that of red wine. The polyphenol content of the white wine was still a quarter of the amount in red wine. But he said the similar antioxidant activities between the two wines suggested that white wine contains varieties of polyphenols with higher antioxidant activity than those found in the red wine. One interesting side effect of the process: the wine has the same colour and aroma of regular white wine. But the addition of alcohol to the fermentation process produced an increase in its sugar level - yielding a sweet, dessert-type white wine. At least one wine manufacturer in Israel has begun making the white wine using this technique. The new, white wine is expected to be sold in the US by the end of the year. --Reuters
Published on : 8 June 2001 |