California-based pharmaceutical firm Global Beverage Innovations has launched an Anti-
Ageing Wine+Resveratrol, a non-vintage 'Blue Nun' style blended white wine from grapes grown by local wineries in the Napa Valley wine region. This is a part of its expansion programme of making functional beverage range.
The Australian doctor GP and wine historian Dr Philip Norrie has developed a resveratrol enhanced 2006 Shiraz and a 2008 Chardonnay from vineyards in South Australia's McLaren Vale region, under the label The Wine Doctor, as already reported.
Both brands use different patent-pending processes to enhance the wine, with Dr Norrie
stating that for The Wine Doctor, "the resveratrol is added to the wine at the time of bottling in a form that is tasteless and odourless, thus claiming that the flavour and bouquet of the wines are not affected by its presence."
Resveratrol is an antioxidant polyphenol which occurs naturally in the skin of grapes. It is credited with giving wine its health properties, where it is normally found in relatively small quantities.
The average resveratrol content of standard white wine is 1-2mg/litre and 4-6mg/litre for red wine. This is only a fraction of the total quantity present and depends upon the extraction content by the winemaker who must focus on the flavour and aromas rather than resveratrol that might result in over-extraction.
Thus, the chemical present is healthy, though the content may not be really enough. That is why, wine producers generally refrain from recommending wine drinking for health reasons.
The contents of the anti-aging compound of both the Wine Doctor and Anti- Ageing Wine products have been boosted to 100mg/litre, giving both white and red the same resveratrol content. Antioxidants neutralise the effect of free radicals which can build up in the body causing oxidative stress. In fact, Dr Norrie has already branded his wines "vascular pipe cleaners" since resveratrol is known to help maintain blood flow by keeping arteries free of fatty deposits called atherosclerotic plaque.
Global Beverage Innovations meanwhile, focuses on resveratrol's purported anti-ageing benefits, marketing Anti-Ageing Wine+Resveratrol as, "The world's healthiest wine".
Both companies are keen to stress that the benefits are best realised with moderate consumption, defined as a standard 750ml bottle of wine each day, shared between two people. This is almost 50% more than recommended by most studies keeping in mind the damage due to alcohol at higher levels, more than 250 mL for men and 125 mL for women.
Anti-Ageing Wine+Resveratrol is priced between US$9.95 to US$14.95 with distribution planned through major US retailers.
The Wine Doctor costs AU$19.95 a bottle (US$13) and is available exclusively through wine brokers Wine IQ. R.E.W 2006 Chardonnay is vibrant green with gold hues. The bouquet shows ripe, tropical fruit and peach, typical of very ripe Chardonnay. The palate has fresh, tropical fruit flavours with a tingling acid finish.
The R.E.W 2005 Shiraz has aromas of spiciness, pepper, mulberries and raspberries. The palate is generous and plumy with soft oak tannins and a long acid finish typical of this variety, according to the company's website.
"The new white wine offers all the health benefits of red wine, the modest, regular consumption of one or two glasses of red wine a day, but for some red wine may be out of question, with the healthier trend toward eating more sea food rich in omega-3 fatty acids," says Richard H. Davis, President of Beverage Marketing USA, Inc., "Now white wine drinker's can reap the specific health benefits of red wine, with a healthier table wine," said Davis. Global Beverage Innovations claim that their wines contain up to 50 times (200 mg) the amount of Resveratrol found in most wines. |