mark wilson wrote:
> --- Kathryn Rosenthal <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> red wine cured in oak barrels is the wine that
>> contains the highest levels 
>> of resveratrol...
> 
> Interesting, I haven't heard that, I'll have to look
> into it.  

I hadn't heard that either, but I'm not too surprised...

> of pinot noir.  My understanding is that resveratrol
> is a chemical produced by the plant to defend itself
> against a particular type of fungas that attacks the
> grapes.

The oak the barrel is made from might very well also 
contain a lot of these chemicals.  Trees have great 
need of defense against fungi; most of a tree is 
just the kind of dead matter that many fungi find 
delicious.  ;-)

I live in the humid tropics (coastal Brazil) and here
mold and fungi attack everything that doesn't defend itself.
When I moved here I brought some furniture, and some the 
stuff made from lower quality of wood just got gobbled up 
by mold!  Not the native woods, though, they are  all 
incredibly dense hardwoods loaded with natural anti-
fungals.  And many have medicinal properties... Brazilian 
herbal pharmacopoeia includes a lot wood and bark, powdered 
or as tea or alcohol extracts.  And I have a cup made from
an Amazonian wood which you fill with water and leave 
sitting for a couple of days and then drink as a powerful
remedy for various intestinal parasites.

:j