I want to drink more red wine for health and also for social reasons,
however, whenever I have a glass or two I get a heartburn.

Which type of red wine is the least acidic?
Merlot?

wrote:
> I want to drink more red wine for health and also for social reasons,
> however, whenever I have a glass or two I get a heartburn.
>
> Which type of red wine is the least acidic?
> Merlot?
>

If you're getting heartburn after a glass or two of red wine, the
problem is almost certainly not the acid in the wine, but rather the
histamines in it. Histamine causes the secretion of acid in the
stomach, and that leads to heartburn. One possible answer is to take a
histamine blocker like Zantac, Prilosec or Nexxium before or immediately
after drinking red wine. Another possible answer is to drink white wine
instead, as they contain minimal amounts of histamines. If, however,
you want to test your theory and try a low-acid red, I'd suggest trying
a soft red wine. Most red wines from hot areas are low in acid, but
many winemakers will acidify the wine with tartaric acid. Try something
like Yellowtail Shiraz for a very low acid wine. As you suggest, most
Merlots from CA are also low in acid.

HTH
Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

wrote:

>
> I want to drink more red wine for health and
> also for social reasons, however, whenever I
> have a glass or two I get a heartburn.
>
> Which type of red wine is the least acidic?
> Merlot?

Do white wines give you the problem? White wines
generally are more acidic, therefore, if they
don't give you heartburn, it may not be an acid
issue.

Mike Tommasi wrote:

> Viceversa, when confronted with something that tastes sour, they will
> describe it as bitter. I recently had somebody tell me they consumed
> large amounts of citrus fruit because it is alkaline and is good for
> you, and has very low acidity, and acidity is not good for you.

Not to mention that gastric juice is far more acidic than anything
you're likely to drink. The pH of gastric juice is ~1 whereas few wines
are lower than pH 3, meaning that they are 100-fold less acidic than
what's already present in your stomach.

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Mark wrote on Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:20:31 -0400:

??>> Viceversa, when confronted with something that tastes
??>> sour, they will describe it as bitter. I recently had
??>> somebody tell me they consumed large amounts of citrus
??>> fruit because it is alkaline and is good for you, and has
??>> very low acidity, and acidity is not good for you.

ML> Not to mention that gastric juice is far more acidic than
ML> anything you're likely to drink. The pH of gastric juice
ML> is ~1 whereas few wines are lower than pH 3, meaning that
ML> they are 100-fold less acidic than what's already present
ML> in your stomach.

It's interesting what people say about acidity. Coffee is a case
in point: it's usually only slightly acidic and sometimes even
neutral. Dark roasted is less acidic than lightly roasted, to
many people's surprise. A simple Google search on say, coffee
ph, can be enlightening :-)

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 02:00:20 -0000, "
> wrote:

>I want to drink more red wine for health and also for social reasons,
>however, whenever I have a glass or two I get a heartburn.

Who told you to drink red wine for health reasons? Your doctor? If
so, ask him/her for advice. I have no idea about your state of health
apart from the fact that you have a stomach problem brought on by red
wine. As a layman, I'd offer the adivice that if red wine gives you
hearburn don't drink it!

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher

Steve Slatcher wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 02:00:20 -0000,
> " > wrote:
>
>>I want to drink more red wine for health and
>>also for social reasons, however, whenever I
>>have a glass or two I get a heartburn.
>
> Who told you to drink red wine for health
> reasons? Your doctor? If
> so, ask him/her for advice. I have no idea
> about your state of health apart from the fact
> that you have a stomach problem brought on by
> red
> wine. As a layman, I'd offer the adivice that
> if red wine gives you hearburn don't drink it!
>

Steve, having a bad day, are you? Go have a red
wine.

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:25:31 -0400, "Paul E. Lehmann"
> wrote:

I'd have given the same advice regardless of my mood. Can you fault
it?

I chose to open a Vasse Felix Chardonnay last night BTW.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher

Steve Slatcher wrote:

> On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:25:31 -0400, "Paul E.
> Lehmann" > wrote:
>
> I'd have given the same advice regardless of my
> mood. Can you fault it?
>
> I chose to open a Vasse Felix Chardonnay last
> night BTW.
>

Yes, I can fault it. It was not only rude but
uninformative. The OP came here for information,
not to be put down.

It would be helpful for the OP to find out exactly
is causing his problem with red wine. It is
possible it is the tannin and not the acid.

On Sat, 11 Aug 2007 06:35:10 -0400, "Paul E. Lehmann"
> wrote:

>Steve Slatcher wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:25:31 -0400, "Paul E.
>> Lehmann" > wrote:
>>
>> I'd have given the same advice regardless of my
>> mood. Can you fault it?
>>
>> I chose to open a Vasse Felix Chardonnay last
>> night BTW.
>>
>
>Yes, I can fault it. It was not only rude but
>uninformative. The OP came here for information,
>not to be put down.

No rudeness was intended, and I apologise to the OP if he was
offended.

>It would be helpful for the OP to find out exactly
>is causing his problem with red wine. It is
>possible it is the tannin and not the acid.

Yes. Others also pointed out that tannins were probably were the
problem. I assumed he was reading the other bits or the thread too.

If he follows the route of chosing low tannin red wine, he may well
find that he is not getting the health benefits he is expecting. It
sounds to me that the health benefits he is seeking are probably due
to precisely the substances that are giving him a bad stomach. But
neither you nor I know what benefits he is seeking from the red wine,
or why he thinks, or was told, that would be better for him than
white.

So that is the long version of my original post, but it boils down to
the same advice.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher