Again, research into the subject is ongoing, but this is a hearteningly currant-scented, great value red, with a lovely cedary streak. Scientists at Glasgow University in the 1990s singled out Chilean reds as the richest in potentially heart-healthy flavanols. Science may have moved on, but this robust, tannic tannat still provides a psychologically cheering bear hug of a deep dark red. When the idea of the French paradox emerged, the duck-fat heavy cuisine and red wines of south-west France, rich in the micronutrients known as polyphenols, were central to the story. But, as we pass another dry January, let’s not completely discard its rewards. For me, and millions of others, wine’s pleasures – social, cultural, intellectual – are hugely beneficial to our mental wellbeing.

Should that spell the end of the wine drinker’s state of exception on matters of health? That rather depends on how broadly you define health. As well as the long-acknowledged dangers of alcohol abuse – from cirrhosis to the hell of addiction – public health professionals all over the world have started to emphasise the links between cancer and even the most meagre of moderate alcohol consumption, culminating in last year’s headline-grabbing claim that a bottle of wine a week has the same impact on our lifetime risk of cancer as five cigarettes a week for men, or 10 for women. Meanwhile, the counter-arguments stack up. Conclusions are frustratingly tentative details remain plausibly contested and contradicted. The idea of wine as panacea is nonetheless hard to sustain. As the British Medical Journal put it, in summing up one of the largest studies of its kind by the department of public health and primary care at Cambridge University in 2017, involving almost two million British adults: “Four decades of epidemiological studies” have “largely agreed” that moderate drinkers experience “lower rates of essentially every meaningful cardiovascular outcome except hemorrhagic stroke” than those who don’t drink at all. In the decades since, the idea that moderate wine consumption could be good for you has hardened into something like received wisdom.

Wine make you faqt