ROSEN: The right shade of red

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

For centuries, the privilege of getting fat on powder-white flour and fine-grain sugar belonged to the wealthy. But it turned out the poor had it right, so now rich people gnaw whole grains and watch their weight.

According to Roger Corder's new book, The Red Wine Diet (Avery-Penguin, $15.95), it's time for a similar about-face concerning wine. While more and more people are discovering wine as a basic food group, they're probably choosing the wrong wine.

Corder was interested, like many, in the French paradox: how they manage to avoid heart disease on a diet of croissants, coffee and creamed snails while turning up their noses at exercise. Wine played a role, and it wasn't just the alcohol.

While moderate daily alcohol helps lower blood pressure and raise HDL, or "good" cholesterol, wine goes further. Not only are wine drinkers thinner, smarter and more educated, a daily glass or two also correlates with lower rates of dementia, diabetes and coronary heart disease as well as better eyesight, freer joints and fewer deaths from any cause.

The key players are polyphenols, a broad category including molecules for tannin and color. They come from grape seeds and skins, so white wines, whose grapes are stripped before fermenting, don't contain any.

The problem, as Corder saw it, was that resveratrol, the polyphenol in the spotlight for helping rats to reach their golden years, shows up in only tiny quantities in wine.

Besides, study results were highly variable. While the effects of red wine were obvious in some, in others they scarcely registered. Corder began to suspect that all reds were not equal. So he set off to explore regions famous for centenarians: Sardinia, Crete and Georgia. What he found was that local vegetables, the animals who ate them and their byproducts, like milk and eggs, were all crammed with a polyphenol called procyanidin. This compound, a powerful artery conditioner, was about 100 times more abundant than resveratrol in local wines.

The highest concentrations came from small grapes with thick skin and copious seeds. In the winery, maceration (skin contact) was important, as was less filtration. The best grapes came from older vines in low-yielding infertile vineyards. Higher elevations with abundant UV rays and cool nights were especially important because they promote high acid levels.

If you've ever tried a sip of strong black tea before and after a squeeze of lemon, you'll appreciate how citric acid tones down astringency. Since procyanidins are extremely astringent, these superwines turned out to be the kind of rough, primitive "food wines" that cry out for the gnarly protein of a goat haunch to soften their tongue- puckering tannins.

Richer regions often age their wines into submission. But farmers in these regions have no time, space or inclination for cellaring. Here wine is a simple drink, taken young from barrels, in all its adolescent abrasiveness. If left for a few years, short, nasty procyanidins combine into longer ones and precipitate out into sediment, leaving a much smoother texture. But unless you drink the wine with a spoon, you'll miss out on the benefits.

While Corder doesn't guarantee 100 years of sprightliness, he does recommend this sort of wine and has a list of producers worldwide who meet his criteria. You could also look for descriptions like "rich, concentrated fruit, lively acid; a lower-alcohol food wine with great structure and aging potential."

As for the amount and timing, they're as important as procyanidin content. Drink it every day with meals, ideally both lunch and dinner. No bingeing allowed, but no dry spells either. That's one diet I think I can follow.

Recommended reds for your health

• Cantina del Mandrolisai Rosso Superiore Sardegna 2003 (Sardinia), $20

• Le Loup Blanc "La Mère Grand" Minervois 2004 (France), $25

• Mas de Daumas Gassac Rouge VDP de L'Herault 2005 (France), $30

• Arnaldo-Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco Collepiano 2003 (Italy), $55

• Matthews Cellars Colombia Valley Red 2003 (U.S.), $60

• Bodegas Castillo Viejo Catamayor Tannat 2004 (Uruguay), $10

• Château de Gaudou Cuvée Traditional Cahors 2003 (France), $11

• Allegrini Palazzo della Torre 2003 (Italy), $14

• Clos Triguedina Cahors 2003 (France), $40

• Luigi D'Alessandro Syrah Il Bosco Cortona 2003 (Italy), $45

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