By:
Tim Lockette (352) 392-1773 ext. 277

Source(s):
Susan Percival SSPercival@mail.ifas.ufl.edu, (352) 392-1991 ext 217
Stephen Talcott SSTalcott@mail.ifas.ufl.edu, (352) 392-1991 ext 218

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GAINESVILLE, Fla.—Wine drinkers have heard plenty of good news in recent years, with study after study pointing to health benefits for people who enjoy a glass or two every evening.

Now researchers at the University of Florida say the red wine grape’s country cousin — the muscadine — may produce a wine healthier than the reds you see in your local grocery store.

“There’s a unique combination of antioxidants in muscadine wine that is not found in other types of wine,” said Stephen Talcott, an assistant professor with UF’s Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Talcott is one of three UF researchers who analyzed the chemical composition of red wines made from the muscadine, a plum-like grape native to the southeastern United States. They found that in many cases, the muscadine wines contained higher levels of antioxidants than cabernet sauvignon, one of the most popular varieties of red wine.

Antioxidants are chemicals that block the effect of free radicals — unstable molecules that occur naturally in the human body. Free radicals cause cell damage that has been linked to heart disease, stroke, signs of aging, certain types of cancers and macular degeneration of the eye.

Red wine contains high levels of certain powerful antioxidants. Numerous studies in recent years have shown that people who drink wine daily in moderation are at lower risk for heart disease and have linked this to the consumption of antioxidants.

Most studies of wine’s health benefits have focused on wines made with Vitis vinifera, a grape species native to Europe and the one used in most commercially available wines. But UF researchers also decided to take a look at the muscadine, Vitis rotundifolia, a backwoods cousin of the red wine grape.

Dozens of varieties of muscadine grow wild throughout the Southeast. It’s a favorite of southern winemaking hobbyists, who make small batches of muscadine wine from grapes picked in the wild or cultivated in vineyards. The muscadine is also the heart of a small but growing wine industry in Florida, where European grapes can’t be grown because of their susceptibility to a variety of diseases.

Talcott and his colleagues in UF’s food science and human nutrition department, professors Susan Percival and Charles Sims, took a look at a variety of muscadine wines fermented on the UF campus and found that many of them contain higher levels of key antioxidants than are found in cabernet wine. All the muscadine wines also contained large amounts of ellagic acid, an anti-carcinogenic compound found in raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and other fruits and nuts. No grape variety is known to contain ellagic acid.

Percival said the findings don’t necessarily mean that all muscadine wines are healthier than other red wines.

“A lot depends on how the wine is prepared,” she said.

Many of the beneficial chemicals in red wine come from the skin of the grape, the researchers said, and antioxidant levels can vary greatly depending on how long the wine is fermented with the skin.

But their findings could be good news for Florida wine producers, who are beginning to carve out a wider niche in a market dominated by wines from California and Europe. Many American wine aficionados have traditionally avoided muscadine wines because they’re sweeter than most other wines. But with Florida wineries drawing record numbers of visitors, demand for muscadine wine is growing. In fact, Florida’s demand for muscadine wine has outstripped the production of its muscadine vineyards.

“We use every grape we can find in Florida, and then we slip into Georgia for some more,” said Keith Mullins, owner of Lakeridge Winery in Clermont, the state’s largest winery.

Mullins said he sells about 140,000 gallons of wine per year. Eighty percent of that is muscadine wine, and the rest is made from other grape varieties native to Florida. Mullins grows the grapes on a 75-acre vineyard in Clermont and at another location in Holmes County, but the properties can’t produce enough fruit to meet growing demand. So Mullins buys muscadines from a vineyard in Georgia and from “u-pick” farms around Florida.

Still, muscadine wines have yet to seriously compete for shelf space in stores. Mullins sells 98 percent of his wine to people who tour the winery, with another 2 percent sold in package stores around the state.

To get a better grasp on the health benefits of muscadine grapes, Percival is planning to conduct a study this fall that would have 20 volunteers drinking moderate amounts of either cabernet or muscadine wine on a daily basis.

“Based on what we know so far, we predict higher blood levels of antioxidants for people who drink muscadine wine,” she said. “This, in turn, should result in greater health benefits.”

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