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Within half an hour of drinking even just one glass, my sinuses block up and feel horribly inflamed. Two glasses and I can't breathe thru my nose and I won't sleep at all that night - horrible. Even white wine can have the same effect, although less often. Not so keen on white wine tho - I love the red stuff, it goes so well with the food I like.
I guess it is due to preservatives/sulfites - but don't know for sure.
I should just give up I know, but I love a glass of red wine with food. Sadly I don't really like beer, nor spirits & mixers - just wine
Is it unavoidable or are there 'safe' red wines? Or should I just give up the booze and drink tea?
I have trouble with red wine exacerbating a health problem of mine, even though I love it, and did discuss it with a wine maker once who felt it might have to do with the tannins.
To that end I did a couple of things so I can still enjoy the occasional glass of my favorite red.
I take a acidophilus capsule every day, simple and I can't help you with the scientific reason it may help for all I know it could be a placebo but it does seem to help me a great deal.
The other thing is I switched to "lighter" reds and whites which I do still enjoy but not as much as my cab sav. I do still enjoy a little glass of that from time to time but I anticipate the problems and increase my water intake and have extra "anti inflammatory" oils prior and after.
I don't know if that might help? It's a bit of an experiment.
Thanks Moonshadow, I will have a look at your advice and try it out
It does seem hard to find less heavy red wines these days - the 'new world' wine fashion is for alcohol content of 13.5%+ maybe they are tannin-heavy???
I'll try drinking more water too, always a good idea.
Well I think the tannins are stronger, more present in the "heavier" reds.
So I find I have more trouble with a really bold and rich cab sav, than I do with a merlot and less again with a rose' or lambrussco. I'm not sure that the tannins impact the alcohol content and more the colour and flavour.
To be honest I probably should do a little more investigating about what these tannin thingies are.
I have been really enjoying dolce and sirrah which is generally served chilled and I don't find it to have too much of an inflammatory effect.
Anyway, I found this really interesting article on tannins, which is long, so I haven't read all the way to the end yet but there are some interesting comments about tannins and proteins, which in my case could explain a lot.
If it is sulfites you can try low sulfite wines. There are some listed on this page Our List of Fine Organic Wines (http://www.organicvintages.com/wine_list.html - broken link) But supposedly there are more sulfites in white wine compared to red wine so it doesn't make sense that in your case you are worse with red.
If it is sulfites you can try low sulfite wines. There are some listed on this page Our List of Fine Organic Wines (http://www.organicvintages.com/wine_list.html - broken link) But supposedly there are more sulfites in white wine compared to red wine so it doesn't make sense that in your case you are worse with red.
Thanks for the info!
I tried a sulfite-free organic red from Whole Foods recently and it tasted just awful, not corked or off, just odd - so bad I couldn't drink enough to tell if it did the usual sinus thing... it was only $10 so maybe it was still a cheap wine, and that is a bad sign for sinus sufferers it seems
I tried a sulfite-free organic red from Whole Foods recently and it tasted just awful, not corked or off, just odd - so bad I couldn't drink enough to tell if it did the usual sinus thing... it was only $10 so maybe it was still a cheap wine, and that is a bad sign for sinus sufferers it seems
I bought the organic (The Daily Red) for my DH who doesn't drink wine for the same reason. We haven't opened it yet so thanks for the heads up. I thought the name was kinda corny
If it is sulfites you can try low sulfite wines. There are some listed on this page Our List of Fine Organic Wines (http://www.organicvintages.com/wine_list.html - broken link) But supposedly there are more sulfites in white wine compared to red wine so it doesn't make sense that in your case you are worse with red.
Actually sulfites is another thing I should look at if my reaction to being in areas of high sulphur are anything to go by. Thanks!
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but it does seem to help me a great deal. 
maybe they are tannin-heavy???
