headaches and tanin related?

[Thomas]

...the histamines are not in the wine, they are in-waiting in your body; when triggered they build up. A portion of the hundreds of components in grape skins trigger histamine build-up, and some people get headaches from the build-up. The reason red wine is the culprit is simple: to make red wine one ferments the grapes on the skins to extract color--the skins contain the histamine-build up components. White wine is fermented as juice, with no skins (except for those occasions when a winemaker gives white juice brief skin contact before pressing).

Perhaps, some red wines pick up less of the components that trigger histamins and so a headache does not follow, or perhaps, some grape varieties have less of the components in their skins; the only way to know if you will get a headache is to drink the wines and rule out the ones that get you.

And then there is the possibility of allergies to the wood used to age the wine...

I often get a nasal build-up (no headaches) that makes me sneeze soon after drinking a glass of many--but not all--reds.



[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 08-02-2002).]