Food and wine: The lifestyle of rich and famous :)

Any perspective of reviving and developing further Armenia's wine industry? We have good grape... The potential supply is there. How about the demand?

MJ,

With a little help from my friends I can drink a ton or two.

Regards and cheers with Armenian cognac!

Dear Gamavor,

That's the first encouraging thing I have heard in this millenium. When do we start it?

I think the demand is always there for good wine The Areni region produces the best Armenian wine. I would love to have a vinyard there

After all ...

Glass of red wine a day
Keeps the doctor away

Cheers !!!

I'd support it! Wine (good wine) is one of the very very few drinks I actually like. I can see myself getting involved in the industry.

The demand will be there (if no one else, then armenians in the diaspora will definitely buy this stuff in great quantities--if it's good, of course--hell, I can even see myself buying it and I normally could care less for the patriotic "let's drink kotayk even if tastes like garbage" junk.)

So, Martin, 1 buyer down, ?? more to go.... lol...

I'll drink anything from Mezcal to Jagermeister to Sake to Ouzo.

Count me in.

Thanks, Gayane. I'll add you to the mailing list. It is by "mail orders only" delivery.

But, you see, I don't believe that Armenians, by in large, will embrace the idea of consuming wine, instead of vodka. Armenians are vodka drinkers.

That's why, I think, while having a overwhelmingly good grape, we have not had an adequate culture of wine production.

Scientist Says
Wine Reduces Death Rate

February 18, 1998
Filed at 2:36 a.m. EST

By The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) – The French scientist who showed the world that wine is good for the heart has a new discovery: Two to three glasses of wine a day reduces death rates from all causes by up to 30 percent.

"I've always suspected this,'' said Serge Renaud, whose findings appeared today in the journal Epidemiology. "Wine protects not only against heart disease but also most cancers.''

Renaud's study of 34,000 middle-aged men living in eastern France supports what has become known as "the French paradox'': Frenchmen who eat lots of saturated fat but still live a long time.

Results were the same for smokers, nonsmokers and former smokers, he said, and there were no differences between white collar and working-class drinkers.

Recent studies in the United States found that a drink of almost any alcohol can lower death rates by reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Renaud, however, maintains that wine also acts against other heart ailments and cancers because of the antioxidant action of polyphenol compounds in grapes.

"Wine is a more diluted form of alcohol, which is important to the body, and if taken moderately at mealtimes it is easily absorbed,'' he explained.

After four glasses a day, Renaud warned, wine has an adverse effect on death rates. Although it still protects the heart, excess drinking raises the danger of cancers and liver disease.

Renaud set off a California wine boom in 1991 when he outlined his French-paradox theory in an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes.

"It started a huge controversy,'' the 70-year-old research recalled, chuckling. "The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms challenged me to show numbers. Well, here they are.''

In fact, he had already made his case in a 1992 article in Lancet. He reported that 20-30 grams daily of alcohol can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by at least 40 percent.

Alcohol protects the heart mainly by acting on platelets in the blood to prevent clotting, he found. Subsequent studies elsewhere supported these findings.

In the Epidemiology article, Renaud reported a 30 percent reduction in death rates from all causes from 2-3 glasses of wine a day, a 35 percent reduction from cardiovascular disease, and an 18-24 percent reduction from cancer.

He plans a second article later this year with a more detailed analysis of his sampling.

Renaud, a cardiologist, works with the prestigious INSERM unit at the University of Bordeaux. His book, "Healthy Diet,'' is popular in France.

"Growing up around Bordeaux, you know instinctively that wine is good for you,'' Renaud said. "My grandparents, their friends, all lived to be 80 or 90. I knew there was some special reason.''

During the 1970s, he began to work quietly to research the subject at the INSERM unit in Lyon.

He is a strong advocate of the Mediterranean diet, based heavily on wheat, olive oil and vegetables, with more fish than red meat. And, of course, Renaud adds, a healthy amount of wine.

Renaud laments a steady drop in wine consumption among many Frenchmen, who these days take less time for meals and relaxation.

"The Italians still drink a lot of wine,'' he said. "Maybe after time we will have to call it 'the Italian paradox."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Presented by INTOWINE.COM
© 1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

MJ jan, Axasheni is the best wine from the Caucasus region. Kaxeti has the best grapes and nothing can reach the taste of Georgian wine. We have the Brandy and they have the wine. Let's admit it, theirs is better.

Most studies that examine alcohol and lifestyle have found that all beverages with alcohol, when consumed in moderation, can have positive effects on health—whether protecting against heart disease, favorably affecting longevity, or having other emerging benefits. More recently, studies have begun to differentiate between different beverages, finding in many cases that people who drink wine enjoy special advantages. The "French Paradox," a term that became widely known in the early 1990s, referred to scientific evidence that showed that despite similarly high fat diets French people were much less likely to suffer heart disease than their American counterparts, possibly due to their more regular intake of wine.
It is still a matter of scientific debate whether it is the components of wine, the way wine is consumed, or the lifestyle traits of wine drinkers that is most responsible for studies finding wine drinkers to live the longest and most healthy lives. Nevertheless, studies including the large-scale Copenhagen City Heart Study (below graph) have found significant mortality benefits for wine drinkers in particular.

Gronbaek et al 1995

The last five years in particular have seen advances in wine-specific research, some focusing on the different components in wine and some exploring other health effects common to wine drinkers. Just recently, studies have shown wine to potentially prevent or delay the onset of cancer, eliminate bacteria that causes stomach poisoning, and to have special antioxidant effects. Teams of researchers have begun to investigate wine’s phenolic compounds more carefully, and many leading scientists have good reason to believe that there is indeed something in wine that may help to protect against disease over and above the ethyl alcohol component.

The Research & Education Department of Wine Institute maintains a database of thousands of scientific studies related to wine and alcohol consumption. For questions, copies of studies or other requests, please email us or call us at (415) 356-7565.

To learn more about wine-specific research findings, please visit any or all of these sections:

Copyright © 1997 Wine Institute
Comments may be sent to webmaster@wineinstitute.org
Email to Research & Education Department: resed@wineinstitute.org


http://www.wineinsti..._rsch/index.htm

Wine is traditionally consumed at mealtimes and for centuries has occupied a prominent place on the dinner table in many cultures around the world, especially in the Mediterranean. When drinking with a meal, people in the United States are also more likely to select wine than any other type of alcohol beverage. Within the last few years, researchers have started to discover that this pairing of wine with food may offer significant health benefits. At this stage, studies are limited, but the "French Paradox" and the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid suggest that wine consumed concurrent with a meal may promote favorable biochemical interactions reducing the risk of certain chronic diseases. In addition to the effects of the ethyl alcohol, research suggests that the antioxidants present in wine, fruits and vegetables favorably influence lipid profiles following a meal.
Dietary concepts such as the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid and the Asian Diet Pyramid include the integration of wine as part of healthful diets, and several studies have shown that moderate consumption of wine does not contribute excess calories or cause weight gain.

The strong emphasis placed on the consumption of wine in connection with meals has also been a way to limit abuse of alcohol in other cultures. In Italy, researcher Amedeo Cottino explains, "This is precisely what is meant by the very common saying, ‘Never drink wine between meals.’ This ensures that alcoholic beverages never fill an empty stomach, and it also controls the amount of drinking by relating it to eating times."

Even public health policy advice, such as in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, often pairs alcohol consumption with meals. The Guidelines state, "Alcoholic beverages have been used to enhance the enjoyment of meals by many societies throughout human history," and advise, "If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation, with meals, and when consumption does not put you or others at risk."

~ Guideline 3, from the Guidelines for Sensible Wine Drinking,
published by Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust

KEY STUDIES:

Dr. Maurizio Trevisan from the University of Buffalo has reported, based on results from the Risk Factor and Life Expectancy (RIFLE) Study of more than 70,000 men and women in Italy, that benefits with respect to coronary heart disease and overall mortality were more pronounced when wine was consumed with meals. His research helps support results of a 1995 study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that showed that red wine consumed at lunch and dinner significantly reduced harmful LDL oxidation. Because wine drinkers tend to drink while they eat, they are likely to be beneficiaries of the positive effects that the interaction of food and alcohol may produce.

A 1994 study published in the Lancet by health researchers with the Japanese government reported that wine (but not other forms of alcohol) with meals prevents the modification of LDL "bad" cholesterol to a form that can increase heart disease risk. "Our results provide direct evidence that regular and long-term consumption of red wine, but not ethanol, inhibited LDL oxidation in vivo. It is suggested that red wine intake may reduce atherosclerosis and morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease. In this context, our study provides a plausible explanation for the ‘French Paradox.’" They attribute wine’s effects to its antioxidant properties.

A 1994 study from the Organization for Applied Scientific Research in the Netherlands provided evidence that consuming alcohol as part of a meal appears to reduce thrombosis, or risk of blood clotting. According to the authors, alcohol stimulates the production of blood factors that prevent blood clot formation and help dissolve existing clots. Drinking with dinner assures that the protective effects of alcohol are strongest in the evening, when fats from the dinner meal circulate through the bloodstream and carries over to the next morning when most heart attacks take place. While the researchers found this effect for all alcohol beverages, it is important to note that social science studies report that wine is consumed 82% of the time alcohol is consumed in a mealtime setting.

French government medical researcher Serge Renaud, M.D., wrote in the Lancet in 1992 about the French Paradox, explaining that "in France the untoward effects of saturated fat are counteracted by intake of wine." With earlier studies having shown that cream in meals increases platelet coagulation, Renaud found wine to counteract the effect: "...because wine is mostly consumed during meals, it is absorbed more slowly, and thus has a prolonged effect on blood platelets at a time when they are under the influence of alimentary lipids that are known to increase their reactivity."



KEY REFERENCES:

Heath D, ed. International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Trevisan M, et al. "Drinking patterns and gender, not quantity, may determine alcohol’s effect on health," presented at Social and Health Effects of Different Drinking Patterns, Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto, Nov. 15, 1995.

Fuhrman B, et al. Consumption of red wine with meals reduces the susceptibility of human plasma and low density lipoprotein to lipid peroxidation. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1995; 61:549-554.

Kondo K, et al., Inhibition of Oxidation of Low-Density Lipoprotein With Red Wine, The Lancet, 1994; 344:1152-1153.

Hendriks H, et al. Effect of moderate dose of alcohol with evening meal on fibrinolytic factors. BMJ, 1994; 308:1003-1006.

Renaud S and DeLorgeril M, Wine, Alcohol, Platelets and the French Paradox for Coronary Heart Disease, The Lancet, 1992; 339:1523-1526.
http://www.wineinsti...consumption.htm

While heart disease reduction and other health-related findings are applicable to all beverages containing alcohol, some research has found advantages specifically for wine drinkers. In a landmark Danish study published in 1995, researchers for the Copenhagen City Heart Study found wine drinkers to have clear health advantages over nondrinkers or moderate drinkers of other beverages. "Our finding, that only wine drinking clearly reduces both the risk of dying from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease and the risk of dying from other causes," wrote Morten Gronbaek and colleagues in the British Medical Journal, "suggests that other more broadly acting factors in wine may be present."
The most apparent beneficial "factors" in wine are its phenolic compounds, often referred to as antioxidants, which recent studies have linked to potentially preventing heart disease and cancer. The combination of these compounds with ethyl alcohol in wine may have particularly advantageous effects for moderate drinkers. Like other studies, a 1996 study from Spain found that fish, vegetables and wine in the diet were associated with reduced risks of heart disease mortality. The researchers, noting that wine’s effects were more pronounced than for other alcohol in the diet, stated, "Our results suggest that the possible benefits to be derived from moderate consumption of wine may be due, in part, to components other than alcohol."

While the special components may account for certain data showing wine drinkers to live longer and healthier lives, scientists also point out that mealtime consumption and the generally healthy lifestyle of wine drinkers are also likely to play a role. In any case, certain health effects appear to be wine-specific, and several individual studies, including those below, have found a little wine may be helpful for certain conditions beyond protection of our hearts.

KEY STUDIES:

Studies in late 1996 and early 1997 have begun to establish wine’s potential role in cancer reduction or prevention. Studies on mice and rabbits, explained in more detail in the section on antioxidants, have found compounds plentiful in wine to inhibit the formation of cancer tumors and reduce the buildup of fat in the arteries. Wine may also be helpful in reducing some risk for breast cancer, as described in the section on women’s health issues.

A French study in 1997 found moderate wine drinkers to be a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease and senile dementia, compared to nondrinkers. The research team from Bordeaux, France, found moderate drinkers to be at a 75 reduced risk for Alzheimer’s and an 80 percent reduced risk for dementia. Earlier the team found that moderate wine consumers performed best on a test of cognitive function as well.

A 1996 study found that wine, among a field of 21 beverages, was most strongly associated with a decreased risk in the formation of painful kidney stones. Harvard researcher Dr. Gary Curhan and colleagues reported that men who drank caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee, tea, beer, and wine significantly reduced their risk of developing kidney stones, while drinking apple juice and grapefruit juice were directly associated with an increased risk. Wine was found to have the strongest inverse association, reducing the risk of stone formation by 39%.

A 1995 study (above graph) found both white and red wine to effectively wipe out bacteria responsible for food-related stomach ailments. "For thousands of years, people have been saying that drinking wine with dinner aids digestion," explained Dr. Martin Weisse, researcher at West Virginia University, "and here we have an explanation why." Weisse and colleagues found that wine was even more effective than bismuth salicylate, the active ingredient in Pepto Bismol, in eradicating three types of bacteria that commonly lead to food poisoning, dysentery and diarrhea. Wine easily outperformed solutions of tequila and ethanol as well.

Another 1995 study examined "central adiposity"—or the fat around our midsections—by measuring the waist-to-hip ratios of over 12,000 people. Increases in waist-to-hip ratio, explained University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, researcher Bruce Duncan and colleagues, also predicted increases in risk of death in the Iowa Women’s Health Study. The results found that moderate wine drinkers reduced their ratio significantly. Those who drank more than six nonwine drinks per week, on the other hand, increased their waist-to-hip ratio.



KEY REFERENCES:

Gronbaek M, et al. Mortality associated with moderate intakes of wine, beer or spirits. BMJ, 1995; 310:1165-1169.

Artalejo FR, et al. Lower consumption of wine and fish as a possible explanation for higher ischaemic heart disease mortality in Spain’s Mediterranean region. International Journal of Epidemiology, 1996; 25(6):1196-1201.

Orgogozo JM, et al. Wine consumption and dementia in the elderly: a prospective community study in the Bordeaux area. Revue Neurologique, 1997: 153.

Curhan G, et al. Prospective study of beverage use and the risk of kidney stones. American Journal of Epidemiology, 1996; 143(5):487-494.

Weisse M, et al. Wine as a digestive aid: Comparative antimicrobial effects of bismuth salicylate and red and white wine. BMJ, 1995; 311:1457-1460.

Duncan B, et al. Prospective study of beverage use and the risk of kidney stones. American Journal of Epidemiology, 1996; 143(3):240-247.

Copyright © 1997 Wine Institute
Comments may be sent to webmaster@wineinstitute.org
Email to Research & Education Department to resed@wineinstitute.org

http://www.wineinsti...ic_benefits.htm

Every glass of wine contains approximately 200 different phenolic compounds (or phenols), of which several have been noted as antioxidants because they have been shown to slow the potentially damaging cell oxidation process. Sometimes scientists refer to categories of phenolic compounds, such as flavonoids or tannins, and large-scale studies have associated general flavonoid intake with overall better health.
In the last five years, preliminary studies have found that specific compounds in wine appear to possess different beneficial effects for animals and for humans. Scientists around the world have already isolated and identified compounds such as resveratrol, catechin and quercetin, and have begun to establish their antioxidant and protective properties, already finding phenolics in wine to potentially reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol, inhibit platelet clotting, and produce a more favorable HDL-LDL cholesterol ratio. The most recent research has begun to indicate the potential role of phenolic compounds in reducing the risk for both heart disease and cancer, which will assure continuing research in this very important area.

Because phenolic compounds are found in high concentrations in the grape skins, seeds, and stems, wine—and particularly red wine, which utilizes all of these parts in the winemaking process—seems to be a particularly rich source for antioxidant nutrients. According to Andrew Waterhouse, Ph.D., key researcher for the pioneering University of California, Davis, Department of Viticulture and Enology, wine is "one of the best sources of phenolic antioxidants available to Americans."

Red Wine Solids Delay Tumor Onset

Clifford, Ebeler et al., Am J Clin Nutr 1996

KEY STUDIES:

A 1997 study published in Science found that the compound resveratrol, plentiful in grape skins and wine, shows "cancer chemopreventive activity," inhibiting processes that result in the forming and spreading of cancer tumors. This study found that resveratrol prevented or reduced, by up to 98%, the number of skin tumors in cancer-prone mice.

In late 1996, a carefully designed study (above graph) from researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that mice fed with wine solids were free of cancer tumors 40% longer than sibling mice with no wine in their diets. Wine-fed mice were found to have much higher concentrations of catechin, a wine compound previously shown to possess antioxidant properties. "We discovered that the wine solid supplement delayed tumor onset, that intact catechin was absorbed, and that the supplemented diet supported normal growth and reproduction for three generations," explained Andrew Clifford and colleagues in the American Journal of Public Health.

Other compounds such as quercetin and trans-resveratrol have been linked with a reduction of breast cancer cells as well. In a 1996 study from researchers at Old Dominion University in Virginia, trans-resveratrol was measured for its potential estrogenic activity—high estrogen being one of the known factors positively associated with breast cancer. The results suggest, say researchers R.L. Williams and colleagues, that trans-resveratrol is "a very potent antagonist" to estrogen binding, "which may provide some beneficial effects in areas such as breast cancer."

1996 laboratory experiments by scientists in San Paulo, Brazil, found that rabbits with high-fat diets had much less atherosclerotic plaque (commonly leading to coronary heart disease) covering their arteries if they were also fed red wine.

Other research including work by John Folts at the University of Wisconsin and by Waterhouse, Frankel and German at the University of California, Davis, have found that antioxidant compounds in wine appear to be responsible for reducing the rate of LDL oxidation, platelet formation and the buildup of fat in the arteries. Compounds in wine have also been found to be more effective than Vitamin E in protecting LDL from oxidation, and beneficial effects appear to be widely distributed among a variety of major compounds.

Other research has found that phenolics in wine are indeed absorbed into the bloodstream, raising serum antioxidant levels in the blood. Wine consumption was also shown not to be associated with the potentially damaging "platelet rebound effect" sometimes responsible for sudden strokes after an episode of very heavy drinking. According to researcher Serge Renaud and colleague reporting in Clinica Chimica Acta, "Wine...seems to supply natural antioxidants that inhibit" the rebound effect, preventing the clumping of blood in the arteries that can cause heart attacks.



KEY REFERENCES:

Jang, Pezzuto, et al. Cancer chemopreventive activity of resveratrol, a natural product derived from grapes. Science, 1997; 275:218-220.

Clifford, Ebeler, et al. Delayed tumor onset in transgenic mice fed an amino acid-based diet supplemented with red wine solids. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1996; 64:748-56.

Williams RL, et al. The estrogenic activity of the polyphenolic resveratrol: benefits of moderate consumption of red wine. Polyphenols Communications 96, Bordeaux, France.

Serrano CV, et al. Presentation on the effects of red wine on atherosclerotic plaque in rabbits. European Congress of Cardiology, Birmingham, England, Aug. 26, 1996.

Folts D, et al. Red wine, atherosclerosis, and coronary thrombosis. Wine in Context: Nutrition, Physiology, Policy. Wine & Health Symposium, Reno, Nevada. American Society for Enology and Viticulture, 1996.

Waterhouse A, Wine Antioxidants May Reduce Heart Disease and Cancer, Presentation at American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, August 1994.

Frankel E, et al., Inhibition of Oxidation of Human Low-Density Lipoprotein by Phenolic Substances in Wine, The Lancet, 1993; 341:454-457.

Waterhouse A, et al, Inhibition of Human LDL Oxidation by Resveratrol, The Lancet, 1993; 341:1103-1104.

Kinsella J, Frankel E, German B, Kanner J, Possible Mechanisms for the Protective Role of Antioxidants in Wine and Plant Foods, Food Technology, April 1993.

Renaud, et al. Effects of alcohol on platelet functions. Clinica Chimica Acta, 1996; 246:77-89.
http://www.wineinsti...ch/antioxid.htm

Alpha,

I have forgotten what were the good brands of Georgian wine. Sure the Georgian wine was the best in the former USSR, and it had the best reputation. But what I am saying is that given that Armenia has good grape, it should be able to produce good wine. It is just a matter of technology. Given that there is a more than 100 years old brandy making tradition in Armenia, I thing, they should be able to come up with proper wine making technologies. The only reason I think we don't have it is the absence of the demand.



[This message has been edited by MJ (edited January 08, 2001).]

Got wine?

Georgian wine is good!
A little bit too good. With one georgian friend on 3rd Jan. We opened a bottle, it was nice, then... Mexican restraunt, english bars, english disco place. Had a fight with bouncers. So, drink but don't drink up your Mind:

Na Kavkaze tak vedetsa, Pei uma ne propevai!

Some song.

By the way which Armenian cognac do you people like the most?

Vaspurakan is the best for me.


Artur

But we used to be wine drinkers, no? Why can't we revive the old tradition? I am doing my part already

A

I don't know... As far as my memory goes, I recall vodka on Armenian tables.

Mj jan yerek yerekoyan tun gnaluts araj handipetsy mer Haykakan xanut ur mihst HAykakan Gini yev Vogelits xmichkner em vertsnum ..
de inch asem barekam aveli kan 20 tarber tesaki HAykakan Gininer kanyin ,
vorosh@ hin Sovetakan Jamanaki gininer voroshn el nor .
miyayn Hoktemberyani Ginu Gortsaranits 5 tesak gini kar , Yervadi Ginu Gortsaranits 3 tesaki nor gininer kayin , Araraty Ginu gortsaran@ 7 tesaki nor Giniiner uner yev nor tesaki shserov yev geretsik pitaknerov

de inch dzer Kenats@ Anush lini

iy es tesak topicner shut shut batsek Shat siram Baba

MosJan,

I vaguely remember Areni, Oshakan, Voskevaz.

But I also remember that they sort of disappeared in late '70s and early-to-mid '90s. I wonder if the wine that you mention in an Armenia store in California is taken from the storage of old day factories, or is it being produced currently?