Reviews

Wine and Eros
www.drinktime.ru, 28 January 2010

A book is the best gift, an old adage goes.

I received several of such presents for Christmas. One of them was rather unconventional. “Wine and Eros. Red wine, sexuality and wellbeing” was a title sent by a wine producer. The book has no references whatsoever to wineries or wine brands, and was sent as such without marketing implications.

Judging by the number of comments left after the Drinktime article on alcoholic aphrodisiacs, the issue of alcohol and sex appears very relevant to our readers. It would be bad manners if I concealed from our audience a new publication, directly related to this topic. Before being attacked with angry retorts on alcohol advertising, I am keen to stress that the book was written by medical profession.

“Vino e Eros. Vino rosso, sessualita, benessere” is a small, 250-page hardcover. It was released by Italian publishing house Giunti in 2009. The book is sold through the company’s website in the section on clinical practice and general medicine. It is edited by two professors and a docent of urology. Another 14 authors contributed, of which only two are not professionally related to medicine (one is an authority on Leonardo da Vinci and the other is a docent of Viticulture and Enology Department and a respected winemaker). All resumes are appended in the end of the book. Apart from the enologist, two doctors openly admit their ‘relationship’ with wine: one enjoys a glass of wine in the company of friends and the other attended a wine course run by the Italian Sommelier Association.

Before delving inside, I habitually read texts on back covers. “An ideal complement to every love affair, the ‘nectar of Bacchus’ effectively interacts with fine mechanisms which regulate sexual activity: moderate consumption of wine has a beneficial effect on men and women”, says this one. What? Are doctors defending alcohol? This should be should shown to the Russian Chief Sanitary Inspector who recently called our film makers not to feature positive characters with a cigarette or a bottle.

Note the phrase: moderate consumption. It keeps popping up throughout the book. I also like that the doctors give facts rather than make sensational statements. Chapters which describe the effect of wine (and alcohol in general) are, in a wine speak, balanced. Both sides, positive and negative, are presented in a neutral tone. Readers are left free to interpret them themselves.

The book starts with an introduction on erotic-cum-vinous works of Leonardo da Vinci and chapters with literary quotations and the history of wine. They are curious but impractical, so we will skip the lyrics and move onto more exciting things.

Here is the chapter on wine and desire. Alcohol loosens people up, this is a known fact. A glass of wine stimulates conversation and facilitates interpersonal relationships — ok, we are getting closer. Alcohol, however, can change our behaviour, as well as perception of situations and people. An experiment was staged in Glasgow. People were shown photographs of the opposite sex and asked to evaluate attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 7. Then the tested people drank wine and gave new evaluations. You probably guessed what happened. Second marks were higher.

It is known just as well that it can be sufficient for a man only to believe that he is drinking alcohol, to stimulate his desire. This is an old test. An alcoholic drink (gin and tonic) is offered to one group of men and non-alcoholic (tonic) — to another. Both groups are informed in advance about what they are going to have. In reality, the former group is drinking just tonic, whilst the latter — an alcoholic cocktail. Although the first group of men hasn’t consumed a drop of alcohol, their arousal, evaluated by erection, is higher than that in the second group. But conclusions shouldn’t be rushed into. Doctors say that in a wider context of life the link between wine and desire is not so straightforward. There are many other conditions including general culture.

The chapter written by a psychologist comes next, “Sexual problems and alcohol consumption”. The most interesting part is about two conventional groups who differ in the way they consume alcohol. One treats wines and other alcoholic beverages as an element of general setting. Here’s the author’s quote: “It is important to highlight that these patients do not treat wine as an ‘absolute necessity’”. Wine and more often spirits are viewed as an essential element for the second group. Russian opinion on this subject also exists. Both factions (classified exclusively by the style of consumption rather than sexual disorders) expressively stated their arguments after the Drinktime article on alcoholic aphrodisiacs.

Skipping pages with detailed accounts of men’s wonderful hydraulic system and physiological mechanisms of female sexuality, we arrive to the book’s best part — “Wine, health and Eros”. Every other paragraph can be quoted. “Today we certainly know that wine is a beverage with a psycho-active effect produced by elevated content of ethyl”. This makes wine a drug that causes dependency and has carcinogenic, toxic and other negative effects of ethyl alcohol. Some horrible statistics is cited, although it is admitted that young people generally drink spirits rather than red wine.

More space in the same paragraph is given to describing positive effects of red wine. “Moderate consumption of red wine (1-2 glasses a day for women and up to 3 for men) appears to have positive health effects thanks to direct impact on endothelium that covers all vessels in the human body”.

First of all, it concerns the coronary system and famous French paradox. This phenomenon was discovered in the eighties and was widely publicised.

In a nutshell, moderate consumption of red wine decreases the risk of heart disease. A few days ago the University of Angers (France) announced that it discovered how wine polyphenols affect endothelium cells on the molecular level. Thus French paradox received ultimate scientific grounds. A separate chapter in the book is dedicated to wine and endothelium with detailed explanation of polyphenols, anthocyanins, resveratrol, etc., a favourite topic of wine and health supporters.

Endothelium also covers vessels of a male organ where wine polyphenols have the same effect like in the blood system. The authors say that functions of heart and penis are closely linked. Sexual disorders signal that a coronary disease such as a heart attack may develop in 2-3-years’ time. Vice versa, men may have problems with erection after heart malfunctions.

Things are more complicated with the finer sex as “female sexuality is much more complex than male, and its physiological processes are not yet clear”. Sexual arousal is induced as much by sensory stimuli as it is by activation of the central nervous system. This mechanism may possibly have room for impact from red wine.

The University of Florence undertook curious research in Chianti, traditional Tuscan wine region. Women aged 18 to 50 filled out Female Sexual Function Index that addresses six aspects of sexuality — desire, interest, lubricants, orgasm, satisfaction and pain. A third of respondents abstained from alcohol altogether, whilst 11,1% drank 1-2 glasses on a daily basis. General sexual index of the latter was higher than of those who occasionally or never drank alcohol. The greatest difference was seen in results for desire and lubricants. Another Neapolitan researcher who also used this questionnaire came to conclusion that Mediterranean diet improves female sexuality after 2 years.

These are but a few highlights of “Vino e Eros”. What is written about wine as such? Oh, it is a boring chapter on physical and chemical compositions. Sugars, acids, lipids, polysaccharides, oligo elements... No aromas of red rose buds, no romantic stuff. But this can be forgiven as the book aims to provide serious information. Romantic part is all down to us.