WeeklySA_AdminThe winners of the 2023 Diners Club Winemaker and Young Winemaker of the Year awards were announced at a black-tie gala dinner at the Five Star Arabella Hotel & Spa on November 18, with Tertius Boshoff (Stellenrust Wines) and Nongcebo Langa (Delheim Wines) claiming top trophy honours.This year’s Diners Club Winemaker of the Year (Category Syrah/Shiraz), Boshoff delighted the judges with his 2020 Stellenrust ArtiSons Blueberry Hill Shiraz. The 2023 Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year, Langa,, received her award (White Wines Category) for her 2022 Delheim Gewürztraminer.
The winning winemaker received R50 000 and the winning young winemaker received R25 000. In addition, both winners received a round-trip air ticket to a wine-producing region.
The awards are presented to winemakers who produce a wine that the judging panel considers to be the best in the two specified categories for the annual competition. This year, the category for the 43rd Winemaker of the Year award was Syrah/Shiraz, with White Wine the category for the 23rd Young Winemaker of the Year award.
Diners Club introduced the Winemaker of the Year award to encourage local winemakers to raise the standard of wines produced in South Africa, and the Young Winemaker of the Year award was established to encourage winemakers under the age of 30 to develop their skills, express their individuality, and add to the future prestige of South African wines internationally.
There were over 180 entries this year and the field was narrowed down to 12 finalists through rigorous judging over two days by a team of wine experts. Six winemakers were shortlisted for the prestigious Winemaker of the Year award, and six were shortlisted for Young Winemaker of the Year. All the judges agree that it was a close race for the top prizes, a clear indication that the finalist wines were outstanding.
Why do some people get headaches from drinking red wine?
ENZYME: Scientists think that a compound called flavanol which is found naturally in red wines can interfere with metabolism of alcohol, causing a bout of headache…
By WSAM Correspondent
A red wine may pair nicely with the upcoming Christmas dinner. But for some people, drinking red wine even in small amounts causes a headache. Typically, a “red wine headache” can occur within 30 minutes to three hours after drinking as little as a small glass of wine.
What in wine causes headaches?
In a new study, scientists at the University of California, Davis, examined why this happens – even to people who don’t get headaches when drinking small amounts of other alcoholic beverages. Researchers think that a flavanol found naturally in red wines can interfere with the proper metabolism of alcohol and can lead to a headache. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Voila, the headache culprit is a flavanol called Quercetin. This flavanol is naturally present in all kinds of fruits and vegetables, including grapes. It’s considered a healthy antioxidant and is even available in supplement form. But when metabolised with alcohol, it can be problematic.
“When it gets in your bloodstream, your body converts it to a different form called quercetin glucuronide,” said wine chemist and corresponding researcher Andrew Waterhouse, professor emeritus with the University of California (UC) Davis Department of Viticulture and Oenology.
“In that form, it blocks the metabolism of alcohol.”
As a result, people can end up accumulating the toxin acetaldehyde, explains lead researcher Apramita Devi, postdoctoral researcher with the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Oenology.
“Acetaldehyde is a well-known toxin, irritant and inflammatory substance,” said Devi. “Researchers know that high levels of acetaldehyde can cause facial flushing, headache and nausea.”
The medication disulfiram prescribed to alcoholics to prevent them from drinking causes these same symptoms. Waterhouse said that’s because the drug also causes the toxin to build up in the body when normally an enzyme in the body would break it down. About 40% of the East Asian population also has an enzyme that doesn’t work very well, allowing acetaldehyde to build up in their system.
“We postulate that when susceptible people consume wine with even modest amounts of quercetin, they develop headaches, particularly if they have a pre-existing migraine or another primary headache condition,” said co-researcher Morris Levin, professor of neurology at UC, San Francisco. “We think we are finally on the right track toward explaining this millennia-old mystery. The next step is to test it scientifically on people who develop these headaches, so stay tuned.”
Sunlight increases headache-causing flavanol in grapes. Levels of flavanol can vary dramatically in red wine, according to Waterhouse.
“Quercetin is produced by the grapes in response to sunlight,” Waterhouse said. “If you grow grapes with the clusters exposed, such as they do in the Napa Valley for their cabernets, you get much higher levels of quercetin. In some cases, it can be four to five times higher.”
Levels of quercetin can also differ depending on how the wine is made, including skin contact during fermentation, fining processes and aging.
Scientists will next compare red wines that contain a lot of quercetin with those that have very little to test their theory about red wine headaches on people. This small human clinical trial, funded by the Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation, will be led by UCSF.
Researchers said there are still many unknowns about the causes of red wine headaches. It’s unclear why some people seem more susceptible to them than others. Researchers don’t know if the enzymes of people who suffer from red wine headaches are more easily inhibited by quercetin or if this population is just more easily affected by the build-up of the toxin acetaldehyde.
“If our hypothesis pans out, then we will have the tools to start addressing these important questions,” Waterhouse said.
