venerdì 3 luglio 2015


wines dedicated to people who drink wine, causes them headaches and migraines
for the first time we speak of food intolerance associated with wine




A short article about the history and research carried out by Sebastiano Ramello, wine expert, International Wine Consulting, globetrotter on wines low in histamines dedicate to wine sensitive and histamine food intolerant.

Explains Sebastiano Ramello, the association Low Histamines focused in following production, and certify wines with histamines no greater than 0.5 mg / liter of geographical denomination, in order to control both the value of histamines but also the quality of the wine.

(the same article published on Indian Wine Academy)

More and more in the world, we talk about food intolerance, and more and more young people suffer from it.  And since the wine is part of the food, or better a liquid feed, with the same characteristics of many solid foods, from these points, I began my search 5 years ago about to wines dedicated to wine sensitive and wine-food intolerant.  Research that led me to work for years in close contact with Italian wineries, winemakers and laboratories recognized by the Italian Government. Like most of the research and innovations, even my started from a very simple idea.

In my house we always had the opportunity to taste excellent high quality wines, as I am an international wine consultant and I receive wines to taste every week from all over Italy. However, every time my family drank or tasted these wines, also high quality wines, my mother suffered from migraines and headaches, especially drinking red wine. Intrigued, we persuaded her to take tests and found that she is histamine intolerant.  I started the research about wines low in histamines in order to find a wine my mother could drink without causing problems.
HISTAMINE is a nitrogen compound widely distributed in the body, where it plays a major role in inflammatory and allergic responses, in gastric secretions and in some brain activity. Besides from man, histamine it can be produced by other organisms for simple decarbossilandone acid histidin.
-At This point I began to understand and then study the Histamines, their effects, where they were and who could be intolerant.

My research led me to discover that for many years, researchers, doctors, nutritionists speak of histamine intolerance related to food:
The most characteristic example of food so rich in histamine, to cause problems for those who assume, is to have the fish too long, and the main ones are those belonging to the family Scombridae, Clupeidae, Engraulidae and coryphaenidae, but are also found in good quantities in some cheeses, spinach, tomatoes, yeast extract, particularly fermented foods, chocolate, and some fruits.
When ahead in the research, I have discovered that most of histamines are not present in foods but in wine, especially red ones (A normal wine has a content of histamines that varies from 4mg / liter to 20mg / liter). At this point before taking the field research, my study was to understand the effects of intolerance and so I found out:

All these foods, either directly or indirectly rich in histamine (Especially the red wine with certain characteristics), when taken in large amounts, can cause symptoms similar to those of food allergy, which technically it is intolerance, because the immune system is not involved. It speaks in such reactions pseudoallergic intoxication of histamines.
- The research led me now to find that about 20% of the world population suffers from migraines and headaches, mostly caused by an intolerance to histamine, is the most intolerant and therefore the intake of these foods, especially red wine, causes them:
Itching, redness of the face and neck, nausea, urticaria, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, headache among the most serious and the least sensitive migraine and headaches. These symptoms vary depending on the concentration of the substance and the individual sensitivity to histamines. Particularly at risk are middle-aged women, (it is estimated that about 70% of people intolerant to histamines are women) and people with severe primary or secondary DAO.
People with histamine intolerance is prescribed a diet where private are removed the foods listed above.

These initial findings have spurred me to start the project wines Low-Histamines, found the association “Low Histamines”(www.lowhistamines.com)  today became the first association in the world dedicated to the research of wines low in histamines[S1]  and certifying wines for wine sensitive and histamine intolerant.

Research carried out with experiments with tasting made me discover that a level of histamines below 0.5mg per liter greatly reduces and sometimes cancels the problem of headaches caused to those who are sensitive to the wines. At this point, along with Italian laboratories, we began to analyze wines from different Italian wineries[S2]  from north to south, for over a year, discovering the first wines (Dolcetto D’Alba doc and Barbera D’Alba doc) with incredible low levels of histamines at the winery Veglio Michelino & Figlio located in the heart of Langa territory in Piedmont region of Italy. However, the level was higher than 0.5 mg/l, but much lower than the normal values of a red wine (about 1,5mg/l), ranging from 4mg / liter to 20 mg / liter, so Mr. Veglio joined the project as professional winemaker and together we began to search for decreasing the histamines in wine following natural methods throughout the entire production chain.

Below the main points of Sebastiano Ramello research carried out with the winery Veglio Michelino & Figlio:




THE FIRST STEP of the research was to understand the level of histamines that can be tolerated by those who are histamine intolerant, which are quantified at 20% of the world population.  The histamine intolerant cannot drink wine, especially red wine, without having headaches and several migraines “the words sulfites or tannins in red wines are associated with throbbing migraine headaches but are not the main cause”.

When I taste red wines with customers, I often hear, “I cannot drink red wine, the sulfites give me migraine” or “tannins in red wines give me migraine”. These statements are not necessarily untrue, but another culprit has been identified – HISTAMINES”. Research suggests that histamines are a primary cause of red wine headaches and more specifically, migraine headaches. Although generally referred to as an allergic reaction to histamine, the headache is, in effect, a food intolerance. Clinical responses such as rashes, diarrheal, nausea/vomiting, and of course, headaches, are proportionally related to the amount of ingested histamine to those most sensitive. But new detection methods allow for more precise evaluation of histamine concentration in red wine (somewhere in the order of 250 ppb, or parts per billion) that can be implemented during the wine-making lifecycle, from the quality of the grapes used to the hygienic condition through bottling.

Extensive testing was done with migraine sufferers with remarkable results. Of the migraine sufferers tested, only 22% reported that they do not normally get headaches from red wine.  The majority of patients who do get migraines after drinking red wines are women.

THE SECOND STEP was to bring the field research, analyzing for about a year and half of red wine all over the Italian territory, from the far north to the far south, through international testing laboratories certified by the Italian government. In the end after many analysis, I discovered two red wines of Piedmont, Italy, by the winery “Veglio Michelino & Figlio”, with incredibly low values of histamines, below 1.5mg/liter.
Still not happy with the great result, along with the wine maker Veglio Osvaldo (owner, Veglio Michelino & Figlio) from Piedmont region, for whole year, I studied how to be able to further reduce histamines, working in the vineyard and in the winery during harvest, allowing them to bring them under the 0.5mg/liter. Other work that required time, experimentation and study, was to be able to stabilize the histamines, which we did through the efforts of winemaker Veglio Osvaldo.

After several attempts and experiments, we achieved the result of 0.5mg/Litre stabilized histamines.


At this point began THE THIRD STEP, to test the wines LOW HISTAMINES with those who are histamine intolerant and sensitive to red wine. The result was significant, it was found that 95% of histamine intolerant individuals who drank Low Histamines wine were not affected by the symptoms of intolerance, and the remaining 5%, the symptoms decreased by 90%.

These results have meant that we decided to put minimum value for the wines Low Histamines 0.5mg/Liter.


The first two wines in the world recognized “Low histamines”are both two Piedmont Italian doc wines:  Dolcetto d'Alba Doc and Barbera d'Alba Doc 2012-2013-2014.
The search for low histamines wines continues today with Mr. Veglio and Mr. Marchisio as we began to explore new wines, and we hope in the future to find out and to certify new wines Low Histamines both in Italy but also in the world.

Important to remember that both the 2 wines Low Histamines by winery Veglio Michelino & Figlio are two D.O.C. (Designation of origin controlled), protection certification of origin and production date by the Italian Government, that add extra value to the wines Low Histamines. The association “LowHistamines.com” is  focused on research and certification of wines with denomination, in order to ensure not only that a wine is low-histamine but also its provenance, originality and quality, so you can follow the entire production chain.

For this reason it was created a logo recognition and today logo certification, coupled with a florescent orange capsule. Each wine Low Histamines is recognized by certification logo and the florescent orange capsule.


The main points in order to obtain low histamines level wines, below 0,5mg/l are:

1)  50% comes from the nature (soil) and we do not have a real control over it

2)  25% comes from a strict control of the entire line of productionand cultivationalong all the 12 months, first chemical fertilizer should be avoided or reduced as much as possible, then it is necessary an extreme focus during the beginning of the harvest: the grape must be healthy on the vine and musy arrive quickly to the pools for crushing, in order to avoid fermentation from inside the basket. Another important point is that wooden barrels cannot be used, since the wood contains tannins that can interact with the wine producing a higher level of histamines.

3) 25% a professional secret by the LowHistamines.com. Our research let us, together with the help of our consulents wine maker Osvaldo Veglio, to discover the right way to reduce and stabilizing furthermore the histamines level of the wine; all this is made keeping the high original quality of the wine it self.

In the world there is already talk of the effects of histamines in humans, so much so that some states, that are more sensitive to the problem of histamines present in wines have started recommending a maximum level of histamines in wines, these Countries are (Histamines expressed in mg/l):

Germany 2mg/l
Netherlands 3mg/l
Belgium 5-6mg/l
France 8mg/l
Switzerland and Austria 10mg/l

For more and more information please visit the website www.lowhistamines.com


SEBASTIANO RAMELLO - spokesperson and researcher Low Histamines, 42 years old, international wine consulting, wine writer and wine globe trotter from Piedmont region Italy, spend most of its time to travel our wonderful world to introduce Italian wines and discover new wines and wineries. In recent years he has focused and has been conducting research related to food intolerance related to wine. 


{ 1 commenti... read them below or add one }

  1. The blog give quite alot of information about why does wine give me a headache. If you love wine and want to get rid of the headache caused after it, you can use Drop It wine.

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