Last night, we had friends over for dinner and enjoyed some lovely wines. About half an hour after they left, I started to get a headache, which got worse until I went to bed. I woke up with a lingering headache this morning.
Why?
Here’s the context: There were four of us. We had a bottle of Champagne from Paul Déthune, one of my favorite producers, then opened (but didn’t finish) a Rhône blend from TOP, a sparkling Nero d’Avola from Day Wines, and a Sauvignon Blanc from a home winemaker here in Oregon. With dessert, we had a 2017 Kika, which is a late-harvest Chenin Blanc from South Africa. The wines were delicious, and I’m already looking forward to revisiting the bottles. But I don’t want to revisit the headache!
So what caused it?
It wasn’t overconsumption or dehydration
With the exception of the Champagne, we just had small pours. I estimate that I had about a half bottle total of still and sparkling wine combined, plus an ounce or two of the dessert wine. This is not an unusual amount of wine for me, as Katie and I often share a bottle with dinner. I’m also careful about hydration, and I drank water all night. So, my experience doesn’t line up with the most common cause of wine headaches: dehydration and acetaldehyde buildup from overdrinking. I also didn’t have any other hangover symptoms.
Not sulfites
There is a long-standing misconception that sulfites cause wine headaches, especially for red wines. It’s part of what drives the natural wine movement to tout “no added sulfites” on the label. But the sulfite-headache link is largely a myth.
All wine contains some level of sulfites because they’re a natural byproduct of fermentation. Most winemakers also add sulfur dioxide (SO2) to wine at various stages because it protects the wine, acting as an antioxidant as well as an antimicrobial agent.
The legal limit for sulfites in the US is 350 mg/L, and most wines come in way below that. Reds usually contain around 50-75 mg/L, whites around 100 mg/L. Many processed foods, like dried fruit, contain significantly more sulfites than wine. Note that whites generally contain more sulfites than reds, which undercuts the idea that red wine headaches come from sulfites. Sweet wines can have even higher levels, but still well below the legal limit.
Any wine over 10 mg/L must be labeled “contains sulfites,” because a small percentage of people with asthma do have a genuine sulfite sensitivity. But their symptoms are usually respiratory, not headaches. Also, I don’t fall into this group.
Maybe the opposite – not enough sulfites?
A few years ago, Master of Wine Sophie Parker-Thomson set off a storm when she published research showing that a lack of sulfites in wine might actually be a bigger problem. She found that biogenic amines, which include the compound histamine, may be to blame for the symptoms associated with wine intolerance, including headaches.
Biogenic amines are produced by bacteria that are highly sensitive to SO2. So, a wine made without SO2 is actually the ideal environment for them. Parker-Thomson found that adding a small amount of SO2 at the right time – as little as 30 ppm before alcoholic fermentation – kept biogenic amine levels very low. But wine made with no sulfites, or with sulfites added only later in the process, showed high enough levels to trigger reactions in some people.
Could I be one of them? I don’t think so. I’ve consumed plenty of “no sulfite added” wines with no issues.
A strange pattern
There is one wine in my history that’s given me an immediate, next-day-lasting headache, more than once, from just a small pour.
It was a Ridge 2013 Lytton Springs Syrah. The first time I had it was at the winery. It was our first tasting of the day, so definitely not an overconsumption problem, and the headache came on almost immediately. It happened again when a friend opened a bottle she had purchased the day we tasted at the winery. I haven’t dared try another vintage, because I don’t want to lose my whole day to a headache. It’s a shame, because the wine is delicious, and I have no trouble with other Ridge wines.
Ridge uses minimal intervention but still adds sulfur. According to the tech sheet, there was 30 ppm added at crush and 130 ppm over the course of aging. Based on Parker-Thomson’s research, this should have been enough to keep the biogenic amines at an inconsequential level, even if I did have a sensitivity to them. Katie is convinced that there’s something about this specific vineyard that disagrees with me.
Other possible culprits
Tannins (found in grape skins, seeds, and stems) are sometimes blamed for headaches, though the evidence is mostly anecdata. In any case, I drink enough red wine to say with confidence that this is not my problem.
Quercetin is a phenolic compound in grape skins that’s more prevalent in sun-exposed red grapes. There is some evidence that quercetin disrupts the body’s metabolism of alcohol, which can cause headaches. But, again, I drink plenty of red wine without issue, so I don’t think this explains it.
Chemicals and additives also seem unlikely. None of these were the kind of lower-quality wine where that’s typically a concern. The one wildcard is the homemade Sauvi B, but it was made by a wine lover who has a fairly sophisticated setup, so I doubt there were any strange additives.
Sugar? In the cocktail world, a lot of people report worse headaches from sugary drinks. But this is mostly because the sweetness makes the drinks go down so easily you lose track of how much alcohol you’re actually consuming. But sugar, like alcohol, can also be dehydrating. I didn’t feel like I had a ton of sugar last night, but I did indulge in a rather large slice of my freshly homemade lemon meringue pie.
So maybe I just didn’t drink enough water after all.