That is pretty impressive to drink 8 btls of Barolo. Still, I think Hideki Irabuās and Tommy Lasordaās āsushi duelā where they combined to eat 200 pieces of sushi tops it.
The grape used to make Mega Purple is Rubired and last year there were ~11,000 acres planted in California.
thatās a lot of mega purple
Just reminded me that we purchased a used barrel, put it in the trunk of our SUV, then drove from Spring Mountain back to San Jose. No barrel bung. Starting at about halfway both my wife and I had headache. A very tough drive.
Iāve been trying to find a rhyme or reason to my wine/alcohol headaches for 2 decades now. Iām just now getting to understand specific additives and methodology making specific wines and am getting a better handle on it. Too much alcohol headache is a general headache, top of head to the ears. The headaches Iām talking about here are definitely histamine/sinus as they are distinctly behind the eyes just like seasonal allergies.
Whites better than reds.
Aged reds better than young reds.
$35 and up wines better than cheaper wines.
No clear pattern oaked/unoaked.
When I say better, none of this is absolute. My wife and I split a cheaper Italian white wine last night at a restaurant and I had a slight stuffiness before bed and waking up but no headache. Iāve had full on headaches an hour after drinking a single glass of wine.
Iām gravitating to older, aged wines because Iām seeing that I can drink a full bottles worth (my share of maybe four different bottles) in an evening and be perfectly fine the next day. So itās not the alcohol level although Iām sure thatās a factor.
Iāve been reading more research on how aging precipitates the tannin phenolics and reactions that bind with the sulfites; but all take time. Canāt say thatās the smoking gun here but it makes sense as young versions of a style of wine can hit me, where a 20 year aged variant of the same and Iām fine.
Finally on the original topic: I would argue that a winemaker that would add Mega Purple to the wine could also add other additives and preservatives, so people that have bad reactions to known MP wines could be reacting to something else.
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Having had a Meiomi recently (for research purposes, promise!) and though it was quite dark in colour I got less Mega Purple grapeyness (though I donāt know if I could honestly pick out Mega Purple as a note because I donāt think I drink many wines that would utilize it) and more just cocoa/vanilla that didnāt really give me the impression of new wood at all, but something like vanilla-coated wood chips.
Seriously 11k acres!
And you know theyāre not dropping fruit and yielding a couple of tons per acre. Probably get 15.-20 tons per acre. Iāll look it up later.
Rubired 252,000 tons in CA 2019
Pinot Noir? 264,000
Thereās a lot of good info about Mega Purple, including interviews, in this article:
A lot of Rubired goes into jug wines, I think.
Congeners ā¦people used to talk about them in the 60s and 70s. Iāve seen articles that say congeners do not lead to hangovers. Alcohol, yes. The idea was you could drink pure alcohol, like top grade Vodka, with less damage than if you drank cheap brandy from Lower Slobovia.
Sometimes I see a shellac quality from oak. Hangover?? No. Gym floor smell?? Is that in the Nez du Vin?? I missed it.
Hangover from mega red?? Itās concentrated grape juice, thatās all.
My theory about some alcoholic beverages giving you more hangovers than others has to do with molds. If you are mold sensitive then wines aged in contact with the dead yeast cells, ie lees, could do the trick. The next day your head hurts and it is stuffy.
There are many substances in wine that are potential allergens, some from additives, some from even ācleanā process for making wines.
-Al