Wine production - pitfalls for vegetarians
Another Glass of Wine Please!
Wine accounts for over 9% of the total alcohol consumption in Ireland, with over 7 litres consumed per head each year (1997 figures). In the industry this is valued at lR220m. A similar trend has been found over the last two decades in the UK with wine consumption more than doubled. In 1970, one glass of wine was consumed for every 7.7 pints of beer, while these days, one glass of wine is consumed for every 1.7 pints of beer consumed. In France there has been a 50% drop in wine consumption since 1971 but this still leaves a substantial 60 litres consumed per person each year.It's Good For You Too!
The first recorded evidence of winemaking goes all the way back to 3000 BC in Egypt but there is archaeological evidence of winemaking dating from around 5000 BC. Hippocrates (about 2,500 years ago) recommended that his patients drink wine to boost their health and Pliny the elder (approx. 2,000 years ago) said that "wine in itself is a remedy, it nourishes the blood of man, it delights the stomach and soothes care and affliction”.Modern day science backs this positive hypothesis with various studies giving praise to the effects of moderate alcohol consumption. Researchers at Howard University, Washington DC, report that if people drink a moderate quantity of wine regularly, they are less likely to develop poor eyesight caused by deterioration of the retina in old age. The alcohol content and to a greater extent, the flavenoids in wine (biochemicals in wine formed by species of fungi which grow naturally on the skin of grapes) reduce the stickiness of platelets in the blood and reduce fibrinogen levels (two elements in the clotting process of blood). Not all wines are equally - at this - red wines produced from grapes which are grown in warm, moist climates (for example - those from the Bordeaux, Burgundy and Cotes du Rhone regions) are considered to be best. What's more, wine is reported to be a rather successful aphrodisiac!
