THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607300048
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BROWN H. CARPENTER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 123 lines
IN ARTHUR'S DRUG STORE, a retail fixture in Norfolk's Ghent area, a certificate hangs on the wall authorizing the pharmacy to receive three gallons of whiskey per month for those who need a nip for medicinal reasons.
The document was issued July 5, 1933, and signed by one H.B. Smith, director of Prohibition in Virginia.
Prohibition has, of course, long disappeared, but the health benefits of moderate consumption of alcohol has resurfaced in recent years, prompted by the French Paradox.
The French, according to studies, drink wine daily and suffer from coronary heart disease at half the rate of Americans, whose intake of wine is considerably less.
Voila! There must be a connection, some scientists have concluded, between wine - especially red wine - and the low incidence of heart problems.
Boris Schwetz, owner of Arthur's Drug Store, is always ready to fill a medical prescription. But he is also prepared to offer medicinal wine to those believing in the French Paradox. The store has a good selection of vintages, including what Schwetz calls ``the $4 table.''
All wines on the table sell for $4 per bottle, three for $11. ``They're discontinued labels, damaged labels, maybe a bottle broke and spilled on the others,'' Schwetz said. ``We constantly look out for these bargains.''
Here's to your good health, Boris.
``Moderate wine consumption lowers the rate of heart disease and helps longevity,'' Elisabeth Holmgren, research and education director for the California Wine Institute in San Francisco, unabashedly proclaims.
Holmgren says wine should be part of a meal, which encourages moderation. This is indeed the way they do it in France.
The French also imbibe ``vin rouge ordinaire,'' which is the local table wine, often served in carafes without labels. If wine is part of your daily diet, you probably can't afford to serve a 10-year-old top vintage.
The benefits of red wine were spread throughout the nation by CBS News' ``60 Minutes'' program in 1991. A follow-up last November reinforced the findings. And people took note.
``Red wine sales are definitely up,'' says Richard Ginsberg, wine and beer buyer for the Farm Fresh supermarket chain. ``I'd say they're up 20 percent since the `60 Minutes' program last fall. Consumers are more in tune with red wines than they've ever been before. They're asking our clerks about them.''
Grape mavens have also descended on The Pottery, a discount operation near Williamsburg, says assistant manager Bonita Schley. ``A lot of older people come in and buy red wine because they were told to drink it for their cholesterol,'' she says.
Schley noted that Virginia wines ``tend to be kind of pricey'' for regular medicinal purposes.
The cheapest medicine would be what used to be called ``jug wines.'' ``We prefer to refer to them as `value brands,' '' Ginsberg says.
The brands to look for in the grocery stores include Gallo, Almaden, Masson, Inglenook, Taylor and Franzia. They're usually produced in California and retail for around $6 for 1.5 liters, $8 for three liters and $9 to $10 for five liters.
The value brands are inexpensive and dependable but not really adventurous. You can't even work up a good adjective (``plum-like,'' ``oaky,'' ``presumptuous'' are some regulars in the wine-drinkers lexicon). Most of them don't even come across as dry.
Many 750-ml bottles of wine - the kind the French consume - can be found for less than $10 at area supermarkets or retail establishments like Arthur's Drug Store and The Pottery. But if you're new at prescriptive wine, you should know a few things.
Know the difference between generic and varietal wines, says Carol Fling, sales manager for the restaurant division of Associated Distributors Inc., a Chesapeake wholesale company.
Blush and Burgundy, for example, are generic wines. Blush simply describes the product's pink complexion; Burgundy is a rich red wine made in the Burgundy area of France, although the American bottles of Burgundy have no geographic origin but purport to imitate the French namesake.
But if you're drinking a chardonnay, merlot or zinfandel, you are experiencing a varietal, or a wine named for the grape it's made from.
Both varietals and generics should provide the elixir you're seeking for a long life for less than $10.
``Burgundy, Chianti, cabernet sauvignon,'' Ginsberg suggests. ``Pinot noir is a little lighter. Zinfandel reds are on the increase. They cost $5 to $7. Eastern European wines are priced right but not selling well. They're not in the public awareness, not advertised.'' Ginsberg says.
Carol Fling notes that the popularity of merlot has created a shortage of that variety, but she has sold a nice Argentine trapiche to the Harris Teeter grocery chain. The trapiche costs about $7.
Jerry Schonfeld, a Portsmouth dentist and former president of the Cork Club wine aficionados, is partial to Italian labels. Citra monte polciano ``is a dynamite inexpensive red wine,'' he says. ``This stuff goes with everything. It's for people who wouldn't touch red wine in the past. It has all the stuff you need for your heart. It costs $4 to $6 per bottle. I buy it by the case.
``Chilean wines are very good, too, but the price will probably go up.''
Exactly what red wine does to extend human life is, well, a paradox. Some suspect it's the more laid-back French lifestyle; others think it's the alcohol.
The California Wine Institute points out that researchers believe moderate amounts of alcohol (from any beverage) help prevent the formation of blood clots and seem to increase the supply of HDL, the good cholesterol, and reduce LDL, or bad cholesterol.
Newer studies, however, have focused on the substances resveratrol, catechin and quercerin, found in red wine, which could function as antioxidants when absorbed in the bloodstream. Antioxidants may figure in slowing the aging process.
Yet other scientists are probing the possibility that the alcohol-antioxidant combination is a double whammy for good health.
In addition to aiding hearts, moderate alcohol consumption appears to be beneficial in preventing adult-onset diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, brittle bones, poor muscle tone, colds, stress and depression, and promoting cognitive reasoning, according to the California Wine Institute.
The Wine Institute also notes that wine is usually imbibed with meals, generally not in large quantities. Even the U.S. government dietary guidelines now OK wine with meals, noting its possible coronary benefits, says the institute's Holmgren.
In her book ``Stop Aging Now'' (HarperCollins, $24), Jean Carper has nice things to say about red wine, believing the elixir is the catechin chemicals in the grape skins.
She quotes Dr. Andrew Waterhouse of the University of California at Davis as describing the most healthful red wines: ``If a wine is robust, really gets your mouth puckered up when you drink it, you know there a lot (of catechins) in there.'' ILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The
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