Hello, My wine tasting get-together provided a bit more input than we all thought. My friend Barb has allergies to outdoor pollens...anyway, she had a small glass of my dandelion wine, and about 30 minutes later she was sneezing and such. She has had my other wines before with no ill effects. Needless we cut her off and she was better in a bit. Has anyone else run into this? or are we just plain wrong to think this? Curious in Wisconsin, Darlene
Amazing, I don't think pollens should have made it into the wine if it was clear. I don't doubt that the reaction is real but I wander what it was that she was reacting too?
Ray
Ray, Good thought; the wine was clear though. I thought it might be the sulfites, but like I said, she has had my other wines before without having a reaction. Now, all my windows were open in my house, maybe the breeze brought something in which she had a reaction too. I was just wondering, because she did ask me before I opened the bottle and passed it around. I told her I didn't know, but she was brave and tried it anyway. After she started sneezing though, we didn't let her have anymore, and we did move on to another bottle - cherry I think. Who knows...? Darlene
Darlene, there are at least three possibilities. (1) Dandelion pollen got into the wine and she had a reaction to it. I have never, ever heard of an allergy to dandelions or their pollen, but admit it is possible. (2) She had a reaction to something else in the environment and the dandelion took the rap. (3) She knew it was dandelion wine and had a hypochondrical reaction. One of my sister-in-laws had a similar reaction to a crabapple wine after my brother told her it was white clover wine. He was trying to prove to her that many of her so-called "allergy attacks" were self-induced. He proved his point, but she is unforgiving to a fault and he has been living in the dog house ever since. Moral of this story: do not make a fool of your spouse if you do not want to live with a fool.
I honestly have difficulty believing your friend's reaction had anything to do with the dandelions, but I have been wrong before.
How does she react to mead? There is potentially far more pollen in mead than dandelion wine, but there should be none in either if the wine was racked a few times and brilliantly clear when bottled.
Jack Keller, The Winemaking Home Page
Actually, I was not questioning whether she was showing allergy to the wine. From what you described, it certainly sounded like the wine. My wife has all sorts of food allergies (bannana, avacado, breen beans, ...) Fortunately she has not reacted to any of my wines. I would not recomend this this to anyone else but if it was me I would test myself by scraching my arm and then rubbing some of the offending wine into it to see if I reacted. But frome my understanding, food allergies usually cause something like hives or throat constriction rather than sneezing.
Ray
That's an interesting idea, although I don't know that she'll want to do that. I know I'll never give her a bottle of Dandelion Wine...but it is interesting. Since this was really my first tasting-my-wine get-togethers, I was just curious what you thought about it. Thanks. Darlene
Jack, Thank you. You've hit it on the nail. I appreciate your input and experience. As I told Ray, I would never give her a bottle of Dandelion wine, whatever I thought either way. My wines usually clear very nicely on their own and I don't have to filter them. I'll admit to having a problem with a few of them over the past few years, but this Dandelion batch wasn't one of them. I checked my records, this wine was racked 3 times and very, very clear when bottled. So clear that I would give it as a gift. I'm sure I'll have other get-togethers, so it is interesting to hear your thoughts in case the question arises again. I don't know what to think. But I'm not going to get too worried about it, other than I won't offer her that wine again, and I'll have something else for her. I hope your brother gets out of the doghouse. My hubby has always thought his sister's allergy to dogs was "not quite real", but he never put it too the test. lol I doubt my friend has ever had mead; drinking my homemade wine is a walk on the wild side for her. Thanks again, Darlene
I have hayfever. Many years ago I made some dandelion wine. It needed 7 cups of the yellow petals, no greens. My wife and I did the plucking in the kitchen. I was miserable, stuffed up and all, and she had to take over in the end. In the years that followed, whenever I drank the wine, I'd get a feeling, kinda heavy in the chest, just not right. I'm convinced it was the dandelion. Dan.
Dan, Thanks for your thoughts...I asked because I wasn't real sure what to think. Plus I'm not prone to allergies, so it's hard for me to know what to say. The best thing to do would be to always play it safe, I suppose, and not drink it. Or if someone just wants to try, just try a bit and see what happens. Darlene
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