A few weeks ago I wrote about wine and health and the latest studies claiming that no amount of alcohol is really safe. I wished in that column that the blanket “alcohol” could be a bit more discriminating. And I got my wish.
A new study that appeared in JAMA Network Open (published by the American Medical Association) separated mostly-wine drinkers from drinkers of other alcoholic beverages or folks who mostly drank with meals. What they discovered: these had lower mortality rates than their other imbibing cohorts. Also in that study, researchers found that light-to-moderate drinking had no deleterious effects on people without serious existing health problems and of higher socioeconomic status.
Interesting result, definitely worth thinking about. People of higher socioeconomic background have, of course, better health outcomes in general — they tend to have better medical care, eat better food, and no doubt drink better, cleaner wine, beer, and spirits. On a different note, Food and Wine magazine (this month's issue) featured a piece called “The History of California wine in 11 bottles.
” The final bottle, under the heading “left-coast natural,” was Broc Cellars' “lively, light-bodied” 2022 Amore Rosso. “Count Chris Brockway as a true revolutionary ..
. he's been at it since 2002.” I've been singing the praises of Berkeley's Broc Cellars for over a decade (as have many other wine writers), and Amore Rosso is one of my all-time favorites.
I first tasted i.