I actually don't have the magic cure to avoiding wine headaches. However, what works for me is eating a huge Italian dinner and then drinking a boat load of water with a few Advil right before I go to bed! People like to blame Sulfites, Tannins, Histamines, ect.... but I think it's just a straight up lack of H2o and a good hearty meal.

Here are a few articles on the subject so you can investigate and see what works best for you:

Red wine headache - Wikipedia

Red Wine Headaches

How to Avoid Wine Headaches

Wine and Headaches

How to Avoid the Red Wine Headache

Red Alert: taming the red wine headache

Red Wine Headache vs. Sulfite Allergy

If you try all these things and still can't figure out how to kick the headache issue, I know of some really good beer blogs out there that are amazing for beer drinkers! In fact I'm in the process of building an in-depth beer blog as we speak! My Beer Blog

Geeeez! I love Bordeaux! I tell most my wine geek buddies that it's the region I would choose if I only had one wine to drink for the rest of my life. (Champagne is a close second....then perhaps Montalcino)

Anyways as I sit here writing this, the glass of the wine that I poured to write this post is literally filling the room with amazing ripe plum and blackberry aromas. I haven't even tasted it yet and I'm drooling here in my seat! Darn it....I should have made this a more religious experience and chopped up some cheese and broke out those tasteless, cardboard-like, white crackers! Oh well, the wine will have to provide all the enjoyment.

So this Chateau was built in 1823 and is literally surounded by vineyards that have been making wines for centuries. Fronsac is a region located west of Saint Emilion and is known for producing wines made mostly of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

From what I gathered from Michael Skurnik's website, this wine is composed of 80% Merlot with the rest being made up of both Cab and Cab Franc. The back label state's that it's aged for 18 months in oak barrels and it's bottled at the estate.

On the nose I get intense black plum aromas that combine with mocha, tar, pencil led, cassis, and maybe a little touch of anise. If you search hard enough you can get the slightest touch of terroir that sneaks through in the form of a minerally soil complex and some crushed rocks.

On the palate the wine has a very sensual texture and some polished but very firm tannins. The plum flavors are still present but the black currant has definitely taken center stage! I get a very intense black tea component too that is sort of sophisticated.....haha that's sounds stuffy huh! CAUTION - This is a wine that is not suited for the fruit lover. It has loads of depth and complexity but speaks black currant, tea, tar, cassis, pencil led, paint, and grit. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

I find that with places like Chateau La Vieille Cure that have been in existence for well over a hundred years, they really know about how to make wine that expresses the soil. This is Fronsac my friends, clay and limestone soils and some really bomb Merlot. Remember that this property is on a plateau that over looks Pomerol, so when we speak about the essence of Merlot, this is it.

Intense, dry, seductive, sophisticated.....haha, complex, terroir-driven, and hmm.. 92 points

Click here to find out more about this wine

I think a lot of times we as consumers or "polite" individuals fail to claim what's ours. We think that by returning a flawed or broken item that we are somehow hurting someone or something. We say to our self, "I wonder what the store manager will say?" when returning a defective gadget. Listen people, if it's broken or flawed then it's just that .... BROKEN and FLAWED!

Now I understand that with wine it's a bit different. We sometimes don't trust our judgement or feel that the retailer will disagree and make us feel stupid. What I've come to realize it that who really cares what they do or say! They still need to get the bottle replaced for us or we will just take our wine business elsewhere and most likely never return.

This is a principle that us here on the west coast are still developing. Most of us were brought up being taught not to dispute things that seemed wrong or out of place. People back east in New York and so on, have absolutely no problem telling you how it is and how it's gonna be. They're not afraid to get their money's worth and most the time couldn't care less about what people say or think about it.

Moral of the story: If you have a corked-ass bottle of wine then return it pronto! Trust me, you won't be hurting anyone's feeling by proclaiming that the juice is hardly drinkable and it's not what you paid for. If they say anything to make you feel uncomfortable then just advise them that you will gladly take you lifetime wine business to another shop.

I've tasted pretty much every wine under this label and as far as I'm concerned the wines are marginal at best. This is their interpretation of a Cotes du Rhone wine made from 100% Syrah sourced from "all four departments of the Rhône, centered around Chateauneuf du Pape." As far as barrel fermentation or other winemaking tech notes, the info. was not available. I do know it's a 15,000 case production.

On the nose I get aromas of mixed berry and concord grape jelly. The fruit smells a bit artificial and hi-c like and there is a distinct metallic note often found in cheaply made wines. There is also a greenish peppery hue that peaks through the fruit and adds a bit of complexity.

On the palate the wine shows some quick upfront berry notes and then turns green and slightly bitter and disjointed towards the finish. They say on the label and in the tech sheet that this wine is "rich", but I actually find it to be light to medium bodied. The wine has little to no finish but a bit of pepper and alcohol are what do linger on the palate.

I'll be completely honest, this wine pisses me off. It's a very poor representation of Syrah, it's a very poor representation of the Rhone valley, and it's really a piss poor representation of wine.

If someone tasted me blind on this stuff my first guess would be cheap Australian critter wine. There are plenty of really good Cotes du Rhone wines out there for the same price or less, so do yourself a favor and leave this one for the label hunters. 75 points

Click here to find out more about this wine

The 2004 Arrowood Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon is composed of Cabernet Sauvignon (89.9%), Merlot (7.2%), Malbec (1.6%), Petit Verdot (1.3%). The fruit is sourced from several vineyard sites throughout Sonoma County and is aged for 24 months in American and French oak barrels.

This winery has been around for quite sometime and was once thought of as one of the premiere wineries in all of California. Over the years it has lost some of it's "press kudos" if you will, but the wines are still magnificent. Dick Arrowood is a legend in Sonoma county and his first wines he made at Chateau St. Jean may have well put them on the map.

This dark and deeply colored Cabernet has beautiful aromas of blackberry, black licorice, vanilla, cedar, cassis, sandalwood, and violet. There are multiple layers of aroma complex that unfold in the glass with exposure to oxygen. Savory chocolate, pan grille, and bacon notes are secondary characteristics that I began to notice while the wine opened up. There is also the distinct aromas profile only found in wines aged in American oak. It's hard to distinguish but it comes across to me a pine and/or dill sometimes.

On the palate the wine is very robust and spicy, but carries along with it beautiful flavors of black currant, cassis, blackberry, and licorice. This wine has a major skeleton and backbone that speaks of ageability and power. The texture is smooth and velvety but with very firm tannins on the finish. It's powerful wine, but full of grace and very well made. 92 points

Click here to find out more about this wine

I'm never shocked anymore to realize that after a day spent waiting in my refrigerator, the bottle of Cabernet I opened seems to taste better after being exposed to oxygen for a night. I'm not a scientist so I have no idea as to the chemical exchange that takes place with wine and oxygen, but the proof is in the bottle and it just tastes smoother and more balanced.

Now I'm not suggesting that you take every bottle of wine and open it a day before consuming, but what I do suggest is that with your big reds such as (Cabernet, Brunello, Shiraz, and most Clarets) that you save at least half the bottle for the next day. I can't tell you how much this technique has changed my perspective of some wines which were hardly drinkable the first day opened.