What Causes Wine to Give You a Headache?

We’ve decided to try taking on the mother of all wine-related questions on the Ideal Wine Company blog. What causes wine to give you a headache?

Everyone’s had a wine headache 

We’ve all been there. Because we’re a provider of luxury bottles from wine making regions around the world, many of us at the Ideal Wine Company have certainly been there.  What can we say, we love our product!

You wake up after a having a few glasses of your favourite vino the night before only to find you have a headache. A roaring headache. Nobody knows exactly why drinking certain wines can give you a headache but everyone has wondered at some point or another why they wake up with a banging head after a few glasses of their favourite Burgundy.

Sulphites do not give you a wine headache

People generally fall into two camps. They either believe that wine gives you a headache because it contains sulphites or because you drank too much of it.

Let’s clear up a common misconception right now. Wine does not give you a headache because it contains sulphites. People associate sulphites with wine headaches because some people react badly when they drink wine with sulphites in it. However they react badly because they’re allergic to sulphites, not because they’re particularly known to cause headaches.

Can wine give you a headache if you drink too much of it?

Now let’s tackle the other theory. Wine can give you a headache because you drank too much of it. Is there any truth to this claim?

Some. Basically wine, like all alcohols, dehydrates your body. That’s why you feel ravenously thirsty whenever you’re hung over. One of the side effects of dehydration is headaches. Ergo sometimes you may be prone to develop a headache after a few glasses of wine if you’ve not had any water to rehydrate your body afterwards.

Drink wine in moderation

Truthfully no-one is exactly sure why wine can give you a headache sometimes. However it seems pretty safe to say that the best way to prevent such a headache is to drink wine in moderation. ‘Everything in moderation’ is the key to living a healthy life. 

China’s Fine Wine Region of the Future

This week the Ideal Wine Company wants to take this opportunity to introduce you to what many are calling China’s fine wine region of the future; Ningxia.

Global Wine Powerhouse

Because Ideal Wine Company is a firm dedicated to providing a range of fine wines from across the world at reasonable prices, we couldn’t have failed to notice the rise of China.

In today’s market, China is a veritable powerhouse. Not only is it the world’s largest growing economy, but is becoming one of its biggest wine consumers – especially where red is concerned. Furthermore, it is making inroads into wine production, which has prompted the rise of a potential new luxury wine hot spot, Ningxia.

The Ability to Foster a Ripe Grape Crop

An article in Drinks Business recently explored the region’s capability as a fine wine powerhouse. It featured the thoughts of Berry Bros & Rudd’s Jasper Morris, who weighed up whether Ningxia has what it takes.

Jasper started out by pointing out the region’s positives, of which there are many. Essentially, it has a “strongly continental climate with hot sunny summers and severely cold winters.” Meanwhile, with an altitude sitting 1,000 metres above sea level, Ningxia enjoys 3,000 hours of sunshine annually.

This last point means that it really is adequately positioned to become a major player in the world of viticulture. It means that harvests can be picked in October, before the first frost. Frosts are known to damage the quality of the grape. Morris elaborated on the point, saying “there seems to be just enough hang time to ripen the grapes but with current viticultural practices, it is a close run thing.”

Killing the Vine

Yet the region isn’t without its issues. Namely, Ningxia same weather patterns. It can reach extreme temperatures on either end of the spectrum. This would mean that vines would need to be buried to survive winter. This process is known to kill a certain percentage of vines every time, meaning new ones must be planted, which can hinder the development of fine wine.

Morris explained why even replanting may be hard in the region, saying “this is labour intensive and probably reduces the life of the vine as a percentage do not survive. It is also very difficult to do in those locations, such as Château Yunmo, where there is a much greater percentage of stones in the otherwise sandy soil – certainly there were many more gaps in the vineyard here.”

The Potential of Ningxia

So Ningxia is hardly going to take the crown from Bordeaux anytime soon, nevertheless, it does have the potential to become a major player in the world’s fine wine industry. Whether it does, and increases the role of China in said industry, remains to be seen.