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 It
has long been known that red wine can be good for the heart.
But now it seems that
certain traditional wines are better than newer varieties. Scientists
have shown that if you want to live a long life, you should
opt for a glass of Sardinian red wine over an Australian
Shiraz.
New
research has found that grapes grown on the Italian island,
along with those from south west France, have much higher
levels of chemicals that can protect the heart than New
World wines. Experts
think the difference could be down to the different climate
and environmental conditions, while the traditional
production techniques used in the 'Old World' are better at
preserving the wine's goodness. Certain
grape varieties only used in France and Italy also have
higher levels of beneficial chemicals. The
British team behind the discovery said it could explain why
people in these two areas have been found to live longer
than inhabitants of many other parts of Europe. The
conclusion therefore is that if people want to protect their
hearts and enjoy a long life, they should forego popular New
World wines such as Australian Shiraz and instead buy a
bottle of French Madiran or a red wine, the Cannonau, from
the Nuoro region of Sardinia.
Previous
studies have suggested that a glass of red wine a day may
protect the heart and scientists concluded chemicals called
flavonoids that come from the skin and seeds of the grape
may be behind this. Now a
new study, published in the journal Nature,
has worked out a particular group of flavonoids known as
procyanidins are the most biologically active.
Professor
Roger Corder of the University of London and Professor Alan
Crozier from Glasgow University, suspected wines high in
these chemicals may therefore offer greater protection for
the heart. They tested
two wines from regions where lots of people have been found
to live to a ripe old age - the Nuoro region in eastern
Sardinia, Jerzu area,
and the Gers department in south west France. They found
both had unusually high levels of these procyanidins - up to
10 times that found in New World Wines.
They
believe the chemicals may in some way affect the endothelial
cells which line our arteries and can trigger heart problems.
The study did not establish
exactly why wines from Sardinia and this area of France had
higher levels of the procyanidins.
However
Prof Corder, from Queen Mary's William Harvey Research
Institute at the University of London, said it may be
because the Gers region wines come mainly from a grape
called Tannat which contains lots of tannins. In
Sardinia, many grapes also grow at altitude and the extra
ultra-violet light they are exposed to could allow more of
the chemicals to be produced. Equally,
it could be because both areas use older vines, which reach
deeper into the soil and so produce more concentrated wines.
It might also be due to
them both using more traditional wine production techniques
involving long slower fermentation in wooden casks.
This
is thought to retain more of the beneficial chemicals than
some of the quicker New World techniques that sometimes use
steel containers Prof Corder said other studies had
suggested that a chemical called resveratrol may account for
the beneficial effects on the heart. However
this is present in only tiny quantities in a wine, unlike
procyanidins which can reach levels of one gramme per litre.
Given
this, he said an average glass of wine a day could be enough
to give you sufficient chemicals to help protect the heart.
But based on the findings, he warned not all red wines
provide the same benefits. He
said: "We have to reappraise the whole idea that red
wine consumption is universally good for you because on the
basis of our research, we concluded only some wines are
going to confer that benefits and many other wines will
confer little more benefit than drinking white wine."
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