Why does red wine have more polyphenols than white?
Because, unlike white wine, red wine is traditionally produced using the skin and the seeds – the source of resveratrol, says Creina Stockleigh of the Australian Wine Research Institute. However, a wine maker in the Bordeaux region of France has made a white wine using skin and seeds that has a similar polyphenol content to red wine, she says. As for rose, the polyphenol content is probably somewhere between white and red, depending on how it’s produced. Where you drink your red might matter too. British research suggests that reds from the Gers area of South West France and from Nuoro in Sardinia – regions where the locals tend to live longer – contain more potent polyphenols than reds made elsewhere in the world, including Australia.
