Newbie enquiries of a red wine flavour

Kit wines are an option. A lot of people like the red kit wines. I have not had one that impressed me. I would recommend you get a good quality white kit wine going. They are generally very good and are drinkable in 2 months so you can find out if you want to get into this quick and if you are going to have the same problem.

Some people say the sulphit used in wines causes their headaches. I don't think any of the other commonly used chemicals would be the culprit. If that is it you can cut them out but realize you probably will not be able to age your wines for long periods and you will have to be especially careful when bottling.

Ray

Here's an article on Red Wine Headaches (RWH):

To summarize: it sounds like no one knows for sure why red wine gives some people headaches. But it's probably NOT the sulfites commonly used in winemaking. It may be caused by compounds found in the grape skins.

Maybe you can try buying a non-grape wine, and see if that gives you headaches too: raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, etc. If that doesn't give you headaches maybe you can try making a similar country wine. But if you are looking for a red wine flavor, country wines may not be what you want. Still, if you give it a try you may be pleasantly surprised, and some of them are really very easy to make.

George Thompson wrote in "I'm a keen red wine drinker, and I like to have a glass or two during dinner. I'm in no way an expert and my palate is yet to mature." ~what variety of red wine do you like?

"Some of the cheap bottles of wine I buy give me a nasty headache...relatively expensive bottle (I'm not naming names) but I generally find they have the same effect." ~not too surprising. you , my wife and many others can take one sip of wine and quickly have a headache.

"I was about to write off my habit, when my parents gave me a bottle of organic red. Suddenly the headache was gone and I could enjoy a decent bottle. I think it's the chemicals that's in the wine" ~of course it's the chemicals in the wine, but not the chemicals the winemaker has added during the winemaking process. most likely it's caused by histamine being released by some factor in the wine. some wines may cause less of a problem and consider yourself lucky if you can identify a variety or brand that you can tolerate.

"am I going to get the same problems from a kit?" ~only one way to find out. make the kit and have a drink. if the problem persists try an antihistamine plus an aspirin or ibuprofen about 1/2 hour before the wine. i've read that helps with red wine syndrome.

bill frazier olathe, kansas, usa

George, The headaches are probably due to the histamines produced from red wines. I believe that the more tannin a wine has, will probably have move histamines. Or you may be sensitive to the sulfites but if I recall, that is a super rare allergy. For a commercial wine, try anything made by Masi. They seem to be low in tannins. Their Valpolicella is about $10 in Ontario. Even if we drink toooo much of it, it has never given us a headache (or a mild one at worst, hangover :-( )!

As far as kit wines, I don't know.

Al

Hi Guys, With kit wines (Vineco and Brew king) the "red wine syndrome" is reduced a lot. Many people with this problem do not have a head ache form these kit wines. I do not know if this is related to the reduced tannin or the reduced tartaric acid in kit wines. My two cents, Eddie V.