S weet wine, unblended, served Odysseus well in the escape with his companions from the Cyclops' cave during his epic return to Ithaca. The wine, a gift from Maron, grandson of Dionysus, was exceptional. " When he drank it he mixed twenty parts of water to one of wine, and yet the fragrance from the mixing bowl was so exquisite that it was impossible to refrain from drinking. " Odysseus carried...

BACKGROUND Studies about beverage preferences in a country in which wine drinking is relatively widespread (like Switzerland) are scarce. Therefore, the main aims of the present study were to examine the associations between beverage preferences and drinking patterns, alcohol-related consequences and the use of other substances among Swiss young men. METHODS The analytical sample consisted of...

Alcoholism is a possible cause of dementia, mainly through associated nutritional deficiencies and, rarely, through acute direct toxicity. However alcohol consumption was not found to be a risk factor in previous epidemiologic studies. We prospectively studied 3,777 community residents aged 65 and over, in the districts of Gironde and Dordogne. Average daily alcoholic consumption was recorded a...

BACKGROUND A reduction in mortality associated with wine drinking compared to beer drinking has been suggested in the past. A recent meta-analysis could not confirm the observed differential effect. Other characteristics not related to specific components of beer and wine must play a role in the relationship between wine and mortality, thereby explaining the differential protective results. M...

BACKGROUND Scientific data on the clinical impact of moderate alcohol consumption after a recent acute myocardial infarction (AMI) are limited, and the specific effect of wine ethanol has not been studied. METHODS AND RESULTS In survivors of a recent AMI, we analyzed the association between ethanol intake and the risk of recurrence. The patients were classified according to the amount of etha...

BACKGROUND We assessed the still unclear effect of the overall alcohol-drinking pattern, beyond the amount of alcohol consumed, on the incidence of cardiovascular clinical disease (CVD). METHODS We followed 14,651 participants during up to 14 years. We built a score assessing simultaneously seven dimensions of alcohol consumption to capture the conformity to a traditional Mediterranean alcoho...

Moderate alcohol intake has been related to lower mortality. However, alcohol use includes other dimensions beyond the amount of alcohol consumed. These aspects have not been sufficiently studied as a comprehensive entity. We aimed to test the relationship between an overall alcohol-drinking pattern and all-cause mortality. In a Mediterranean cohort study, we followed 18 394 Spanish participant...

There are many factors, which are important in the evolution of wines during aging in bottle. Whilst it is accepted that the interaction of limited amounts of oxygen with bottled wine (via closure ingress) will not benefit white wine, it is widely held that limited amounts of oxygen will benefit robust red wines. As consumer acceptance continues of many different forms of wine bottle closures, ...

Aims To identify a typology of heavier drinking styles in Great Britain and to identify socio-demographic trends in the typology over the period 1978-2010. Methods We applied multiple correspondence analysis and agglomerative hierarchical clustering to beverage-specific quantity-frequency measures of alcohol consumption in the repeated cross-sectional General Lifestyle Survey of Great Britain...