Drink More Wine

[selfactivated]

Im going to try cordials this winter and for yule Im making wine jelly. I'll post the recipe when I get home.

 

[sanctus]

It was reported in the globe and mail today that a compound found in red wine, called resveratrol, lowers the rate of diabetes & liver problems. I believe that it has also been shown to have anti-cancer, anti-aging & other beneficial properties. Better start drinking more wine (or eating more fruit, but then I wouldn't get drunk)


The Globe and Mail

Here is the Wikipedia Article on Resveratrol

Works for me, I drink red wine and sherry(fortified wine) on a regular basis!

 

[humanbeing]

Resveratrol is already available as a dietary supplement. I think it's going to get a lot popular. Might even give Omega 3 a run for it!

Heheh. Thanks for the laugh. So true though... I think you're right!

I haven't bought a bottle of wine for over a decade. I make my own. Once you've amortized the startup costs, which will take two or three batches, you can make it for around $3 or $4 a bottle, even less if you buy the lower priced kits, and it's at least as good as anything you can buy for under $25. Possible drawbacks:

1. space: you need room to store at least two 23-litre containers, space equivalent to a third one to store the ancillary equipment, and 30 wine bottles.

2. strength: you have to be able to lift a big glass jar containing 23 litres of wine from the floor up to counter height. It's around 27 kg, or for you furrinners, about 60 pounds.

3. individual taste: if you like sparkling wines or champagne-type stuff, it's a little tricky to get right and not everybody has the patience to do it. Still wines, however, are quite simple, and with the easiest kits takes about 3 hours of work spread over 4 weeks.

4. chemical sensitivities: the standard sterilizer (and you have to keep everything *REALLY* clean or you'll end up with 30 bottles of vinegar) gives off hydrogen sulfide gas in small quantities. You can't avoid contact with it. There are other sterilizers, but they're essentially soaps, and the equipment requires endless rinsing to get it all off.

5. patience and care (hinted at in the previous point): it's not difficult, but you have to do it right and be scrupulously clean and careful. If you're a pig, a slob, impatient, or stupid, don't even try, you'll just fail.

None of those are issues for me, though #2 might become one as I approach old age decrepitude, which I hope is at least a couple of decades away yet. But then I'll build some hydraulic lift apparatus to do it for me...

Awesome, Dexter! I'm a big fan of DIY stuff, and started brewing my own beer a while ago.

It's really quite amazing how far you can push the cheapness versus greatness fold when you make homemade wine and beer, especially if you come from a place of highly regulated booze sales like Ontario. Here a case of beers (24) will put you back about thirty to forty bucks, whereas I can easily brew about 100 bottles of my own stuff for about ten bucks. The homebrew is, to me (and many of my friends), of a superior quality to quite a few of the major labels. Plus there is just something pleasant in making your own.

I urge folks to buy the kit (or cheap out and find most of the components around your house), go to the brewery or winery and take a class or two (or don't), and enjoy the cash savings and enjoyment that comes with DIY beer and wine.

While this thread is about resveratrol and red wine, I figure I've heard some good reports on consuming a small amount of beer on a fairly regular basis, so in the name of good health I just had to speak up...

Say, I've also heard the occasional stiff one is all right...

(sorry about italics, it's not letting me turn it off)

 

[sanctus]

It was reported in the globe and mail today that a compound found in red wine, called resveratrol, lowers the rate of diabetes & liver problems. I believe that it has also been shown to have anti-cancer, anti-aging & other beneficial properties. Better start drinking more wine (or eating more fruit, but then I wouldn't get drunk)

Wonderful news! Now if someone calls me a wino, I can say I drink it for health reasons.