In 1991 the French researcher Serge Renaud spoke of the ‘French Paradox’: the French, particularly those living in the south-west, ate many times more fat than Americans, including large amounts of saturated duck and goose fat, and yet had one-third the risk of dying of heart or vascular diseases.

The reason was said to be their consumption of red wine. It was already known that a modest intake of alcohol had a favorable effect on the heart and blood vessels, but there were certain substances in the skin of black grapes which were said to provide extra protection. Further research indicated that the active substances were mainly flavonoids and polyphenols, which act as anti-oxidants.

Since then news has been heard from the other camp. American scientists point out that French eating patterns lag behind those of Americans and that within a generation the French will have the same mortality patterns as Americans. Renaud is also supposed to have concealed other figures of those who died of alcohol consumption.

Evidence is mounting, however, that consuming a moderate amount of wine, preferably daily, does promote better health. The largest recent study, published in 1995 by the Heart Institute of Copenhagen, followed 13,000 men and women aged between 30 and 70 from 1976 to 1988. The wine drinkers turned out to have half the mortality rate of the teetotalers. Not only were the heart and vascular diseases less prevalent among wine drinkers, and especially red wine drinkers, but so were Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, dysentery and other digestive disorders including ‘travelers’ diarrhea’.

In June 2000 Dr. Martin Edeas of the Biochemical Department of the Hôpital Antoine Béclère in Paris, a prominent HIV research centre, publicized the fact that adding two glasses of red wine per day to an anti-virus medicinal treatment significantly lengthened the ‘latent period’ of HIV infection. Welcome side effects were improved appetite and better general well-being.

These are the key reasons why most Wine 101 education resources recommend a glass of red wine everyday to maintain good health.