WHY WHITE WINE IS MORE INTOXICATING THAN RED.
CTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sra,—In the interesting article upon alcohol in your impres- sion of January 4th, you touch upon the difference in the action upon the nerves of red and white wine. A rather extended experience abroad enables me to confirm the views expressed by my old schoolfellow, Mr. Hamel-ton, as to white wine being much more intoxicating and injurious than red wine of the same alcoholic strength. I believe the fact to be incontestable that in all white-wine districts, including, of course, all cider-pro- ducing countries, drunkenness is much more prevalent than where red wine is grown.
A lady whom I met in Brittany, in the 'summer of 1877, had a chateau on the Loire, where she spent six months of the year, living the other six months on an estate near Dinant. She assured me that the difference in the matter of sobriety was most marked between the peasants on the Loire, whose habitual beverage was red wine, and the Normans and Bretons, who drink cider, to the exclusion of everything else, even water. In the Pays de Vaud, the abundant supply of white wine is admitted by all thoughtful inhabitants to be a great curse. Very few labouring men attain old age, their nervous system breaking down entirely, through their intemperate use of the product of the smiling vineyards that line the shores of Lake Leman. A hotel proprietor of great experience assured me that he found it better in every way to supply his servants and labourers with a cheap red wine from France, than to let them drink the white wine of the country.
There is a very simple reason for the difference in the effects of red and white wine,—the former is very rich in tannin, which is absent in the latter. The tannin exercises an astringent influence, and closes the pores of the stomach, thus preventing the alcohol from going straight to the brain, as it does in the case of white wine. This may not be scientifically expressed, but I believe it indicates with sufficient accuracy the cause of the intoxicating and injurious effect of even light white wines.—I am, Sir, &c.,