SORRY, WINE SNOBS

$90 wine tastes better than $10 wine -- even if it's the same wine.
This story will have wine merchants and advertisers jumping for joy -- but wine snobs will either confess ignorance (not very likely) or scramble for rationalization. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford's business school have linked the enjoyment people experience drinking wine directly to the price tag. That proved to be the case, even when drinkers were unaware it was exactly the same Cabernet with drastically different price tags. We're talking pleasure centers of the brain here, not just the subjective blather we've learned to ignore from wine snobs. So keep buying your two-buck Chuck, but if you really want a great wine slap a high price tag on it. Me, I'll have the ninety-buck Chuck.

Salute!

For more about the study, click here.

RED RED WINE

The holidays are a time to eat, drink, and be merry. Last year, red wine drinkers got a good buzz when Professor David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School published papers suggesting that Resveratrol, aSIRT1 activator found in red wine, could reduce the impact of a highfat diet, increase stamina twofold, and significantly extend life span of mice. Now you could rationalize drinking for your health! No longer were you just a boring drunk, a gin sop, a booze hound -- you were something of a health conscious individual. Wine was medicine.

Sorry to kill your buzz. Sadly, it was estimated that one needed to drink upwards of a thousand bottles of wine a day to achieve the beneficial effects of Resveratrol. With the exception of lab rats and a few of my relatives, no one can drink that much.

The good news: An article published today showcases several new related drugs that have been identified. Sinclair and other researchers have tested some 500,000 molecules, and come up with alternatives to Resveratrol. In fact, the most potent SIRT1 activator they've isolated is a thousand times more powerful! The science baffles me, but the salient point is that these new breakthrough drugs may someday be available to the general public, perhaps in pill form. Soon, it may no longer be necessary to drink a thousand bottles of red wine a day. So relax. Take a breather. With any luck, you may get to be part of clinical studies that begin on humans in 2008. Until then, drink responsibly.