Wine from Sardinia, SW France "best for the heart"

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) Not all wines are created equal and some may be better than others at reducing the risk of heart disease, scientists said.

For the most health benefits, wines from southwestern France and Sardinia could be the best of all because they contain high levels of procyanidins -- compounds in grape seeds that are good for the heart.

''There is a tremendous variability between levels in different types of wine,'' said Professor Roger Corder of Queen Mary, University of London yesterday.

''Perhaps we should be looking more at the type of wines we drink in the future if we want to try and derive some benefit from their consumption,'' he told Reuters.

Corder and his team earlier identified a mechanism to explain the French paradox -- how a country renowned for its love of cheese, rich sauces and foie gras has a low rate of heart disease -- when they found red wine was rich in polyphenols, which block the production of a protein linked to heart disease.

In new research published in the journal Nature, they purified the most biologically active polyphenols and identified them as procyanidins.

TRADITIONAL PRODUCTION METHODS The researchers also discovered that wines from southwestern France, which has the highest proportion of 75-year-old men in the country, and Sardinia with more than its fair share of centenarians, are rich in procyanidins.

''The surprising feature of their wines is they have very high levels of procyanidins and this seems to be due mainly to the grapes growing in that area,'' said Corder.

''This may explain the strong association between consumption of traditional tannic wines with overall wellbeing, reflected in greater longevity,'' he added.

The Tannat grape is a particularly rich source of procyanidins.

Vineyards in southwestern France and Sardinia also use traditional production methods that insure procyanidins are efficiently extracted from the grape seeds, according to the researchers.

The key is the length of time the seeds and skin of the grapes are in contact with the fermenting juice. Some traditional vineyards have a 21-day fermentation process compared to much shorter times for other wines.

''Modern-style wine will be red and will be alcoholic but it won't have these components. It has to be fermented longer in contact with the pips (seeds),'' Corder said.

In addition to red wine, procyanidins are also found in some fruits and in dark chocolate.

''A combination of both would be a healthy strategy,'' Corder added.

REUTERS PA BST0924