This is a long piece but very instructive. It’s by a woman who is active in the Napa area and used to post about wine and wine science on a foodie site that has pretty much self-destructed of late. I miss her knowledge.
" maria lorraine
01/15/10 8:25PM
warning…long post…
Could be lots of reasons for the headaches.
**Carbon Dioxide Factors
The bubbles, or rather the carbon dioxide inside the bubbles, launches the alcohol into your body, giving you a higher BAC alcohol level than the same ABV wine that didn’t have bubbles. You’ve noticed, gourmet wife, the immediate buzz that comes from bubbles in comparison to still wine, right?
The carbon dioxide also does a number on your Krebs cycle – it takes more energy and water to process, hence greater dehydration, fatigue and headaches.
Maximillien makes a good point. If you’re drinking bubbly, you’re often drinking it as the first wine of the evening and usually before you’ve had something substantial to eat, or more than just a nibble. And if you’re like me, and drinking bubbles for some fun occasion, you may have skipped the last meal or eaten very lightly so you can splurge on calories for dinner.
So, the effect of the bubbles keeps multiplying.
There’s a rule in drinking bubbly that the bigger the bubble, the badder the headache.
It’s true. Methode champenoise bubbly has a fine bead and small bubbles.
But charmat method bubbly (like most Prosecco and cheap stuff like Totts is essentially carbonated wine. Its harsh, the bubbles are harsh, and the effect on the body is even greater than that of premium bubbly.
**Fermentations, especially fast fermentations:
Then, let’s consider the still wine before it’s made into bubbly. How is it made? Cheaply, with a fast fermentation? Box wines, bulk wines, and other low-priced wines are subjected to ultra-fast and hot fermentations. While those ferms convert sugar into alcohol, the speed and high heat also mean toxic alcohols are formed (other than ethyl alcohol) and those will do a number on your head like a sledgehammer. Have you ever noticed the wicked hangover you get from cheap wine? Yet another reason not to drink it. Notice I didn’t say inexpensive wine, but cheap wine.
**Biogenic Amines
These are a group of substances in wine that cause problems in a lot of people, and cause problems in nearly all people when consumed in a high-enough volume. Biogenic amines are made most often during malolactic fermentation (a secondary fermentation after the first that converts sugar to alcohol).
Nearly all red wines undergo ML, and white wines do in varying percentages (or not at all). If you’ve ever tasted a buttery quality in a chardonnay, that’s malolactic. If the wine actually tastes buttery, then that’s a lot of ML, which means a lot of biogenic amines and a greater tendency towards a headache.
But malolactic fermentations differ around the world. It’s initiated by lactobacilli bacteria, but the strains of lactobacilli used for ML differ. The lactobacilli in Europe used for ML appear to be less harsh (at least in terms of their effect on the body and causing headaches) than the lactobacilli used in the US. So if you’ve ever heard of wine drinkers who can drink European wines without getting a headache, but American wines always give them a headache, this is probably the reason why.
Most people are familiar with the biogenic amines histamine, which was proven not to cause headaches in wine in 2006-7, and phenylethylamine, that mood-boosting chemical in chocolate. But a third type of biogenic amine, tyramine, is a known trigger for headaches and migraines. Tyramines are in every food that’s cured or fermented – soy sauce, aged cheese, salami/salumi, – and red wine is loaded with tyramine.
While a little tyramine may be fine for you, go beyond your individual threshold and you will get a headache and often redness on the face and chest. Let’s say you have a few pieces of salami with your red wine and you’re OK. But add a healthy serving of Italian cured meats, some aged cheese, and 3-4 glasses of Chianti Riserva, and you’re stung with a headache. This is a very common cause of “wine” headaches, but it’s actually not caused by the wine, but by the accumulation of tyramines from both the wine and food.
Just like tyramines, your intake of biogenic amines is cumulative. Stainless-steel white wine produced in Europe may not cause a headache in you, but a tannic, oak-aged, red wine made in the US and affected by Brett might. It’s a matter of degree – how many biogenic amines you’re ingested.
If a wine goes through a third common (and sometimes undesirable) fermentation called Brett, that adds yet more biogenic amines to wine. Wines that have lots of contact with the yeast (sur lie aging) also have more biogenic amines. So that’s yet another factor.
Tannins are another cause of headaches. Tannins come both from the grapes – the skins the seeds, etc – and from oak barrels. They’re yet another component.
**Volume, Body Weight, Hydration, Hormones, Hunger, Medications
I alluded to this before, as did Maximillien. If you’re hungry, the alcohol is going to hit you harder. If you drink a lot of wine, it’s going to hit you harder. If you’re already dehydrated and drink, you’re asking for a headache. If you’re tiny (in weight or stature), the alcohol is going to hit your harder. Fluctuations in hormones can cause alcohol to hit harder. Certain medications potentiate alcohol, and amplify its effect.
So that’s lots of things in wines and foods that cause headaches.
More factors mean a greater likelihood of a headache:
Bubbly, especially cheap bubbly, because of the carbon dioxide
Cheap wine, because of toxic alcohols
Drinking on an empty stomach
Malolactic fermentation
Malolactic fermentation in the US
Brett
Red wine more than white wine because of tannin
Certain kinds of red wine more than other kinds of red wine (tannins, polyphenols)
Oak aging – tyramines, tannins
LOTS of wine."