I’m not entirely sure where spring went, but I know one thing for sure: Summer is upon us.
When the thermometer starts reading triple digits, that’s when us locals start planning, or at least fantasizing, about getting the hell outta here.
While my brain was in fantasy vacation mode, I started to think about all the conversations I have throughout the year with my customers who tell me that they can no longer drink wine, in one way or another. Sometimes the wine they have given up is strictly from California. Other times, they think the problem is sulfites (a huge fallacy), or wines high in alcohol. In some cases, it’s a ban on red wine, or white wine, or sparkling wine, because it causes them some sort of ailment.
These sentiments are usually followed by expressions of sadness and confusion as they tell me, “When I was in Italy last summer, we drank wine all day, and I felt fine!” Or: “My trip to France was the last time I drank wine and didn’t feel crappy!” The rationale explained to me, time and time again, by my wine-loving, traveling customers, is that the wine we drink in other countries is somehow different that the wine we’re consuming here. The idea is that the wine imported to the United States is doctored up with additives, chemicals or some kind of voodoo witchcraft poison that doesn’t exist in the wines served in their homeland. “Give this crap to the Americans! They’ll drink anything! (Insert evil hand-wringing and maniacal laugh.) Bwahaha!”
I read an article on this very topic in the fabulous Somm Journal publication written by a wine colleague, Erik Segelbaum. He touched on this very issue and shed some thought-provoking and eye-opening light on the real culprit behind some of these symptoms.
First things first: As Erik points out so eloquently, it would be an impossible endeavor—a chaos-inducing winery nightmare—to create the same wine two different ways, one for those chemical-loving Americans, and a clean, preservative-free one for everyone else. Just imagine a winery that is producing thousands and thousands of cases of wine every year, trying to keep track of which batch of grapes goes to which wine, and which barrels have the other wine, and doggone it, where in the hell is that bag of yucky crap we need to add to the wine going to the States?
That just doesn’t happen.
So why is it that we can drink more (or at least the same amount) of wine when we travel and not feel the same kind of hangover we do when we’re at home? Cuz we know it isn’t the wine’s fault!
I started thinking about my last trip to Italy. It occurred to me that when we go on vacation, especially a vacation to Europe, it’s not really a relaxing vacation, because, let’s face it, even though Rome wasn’t built in a day, we’re pretty hell-bent on seeing the entirety of it in one. When we travel abroad, we’re doing something most of us do rarely when we’re home … walk. And I mean a pedometer-crashing level of walking. Studies have shown that even moderate exercise can counteract the effects of alcohol, and a trip to Europe guarantees you’re going to get some cardio time.
All that unintended exercise reduces the likelihood that you’ll wake up feeling like you’ve been hit by a train.
Wine for breakfast? Sure! That’ll be metabolized quickly, because it’s only 9:30 a.m., and I’ve already clocked three miles. Wine for lunch? Of course! I mean, we are sitting in a vineyard relaxing, but only after we toured the entire 300-acre property on foot, including the winery, caves and the 500 steps down to the cellar. Wine for dinner? Well, what else am I going to drink with this handmade pasta, covered in a homemade Bolognese sauce made from tomatoes grown right over there, and topped with cheese that they made and aged in that cellar? And what happens after dinner? You’re gonna walk, walk, walk, all the way back to your hotel. All that unintended exercise reduces the likelihood that you’ll wake up feeling like you’ve been hit by a train.
And what about that homemade pasta and sauce? Or those light-as-air, flaky croissants and artisanal cheeses? It’s not surprising that the quality of food available in Europe is superior to what we find here at home. The fact is that additives in food are strictly governed in the European Union, and in many cases, they are simply not allowed. Take the dyes, oils, refined sugars and 16-syllable words otherwise only found in chemistry textbooks out of our daily diet, and suddenly the ethanol in wine becomes the most-toxic thing you’ve consumed. That’s a-OK with me!
Lastly, I’ll point out that, yes, it’s true that a lot of wines that are produced in France and Italy have moderate alcohol levels. And yes, lower levels of alcohol are less likely to give you a hangover. But the real take-away I’ve discovered is that the dynamic duo of diet and exercise can help us embrace the wines we love all over again … with or without a trip to Europe.
Vine Social: Does Wine Affect You Differently When You’re on Vacation? There’s a Reason for That—and It’s Not the Wine is a story from Coachella Valley Independent, the Coachella Valley’s alternative news source.