Yeah - traditional wine has antibacterial properties and it’s been officially studied and everything. The massive scholar and medical professor emeritus Salvatore Lucia MD did a lot of published research on this and more. His interest started as an immunologist looking for cholera prevention remedies in sub tropical settings, interestingly enough. Apparently just a few tablespoons of wine added to a canteen of water then ‘steeped’ for an hour, purifies drinking water from infectious threats.
Of course, modern industrial vineyards regularly doused in Monsanto roundup (napalm) and the wine they produce vs. traditional artisanal biodynamic slow-fermented enzyme-rich wine is a whole other subject - with very different biochemical profiles and different impacts on the microbial health of the topsoil in the vineyards. Big Ag governments continue to marginalize small farmer winemaking in favor of standardized and highly profitable industrial processes and partnerships, including GMO vines (covered well in the film about artisanal Italian and French small farmer winemakers and permaculturalists, called “Natural Resistance” which I just watched the other night!)
It’s gotten to the point that the live yeasts of artisanal fermentation in wines, cheeses, and salamis are being outlawed by the EU Agriculture committee on behalf of increasingly far-right governmental values and fear-mongering about traditional foods production practices, permaculture genetic biodiversity, and human cultural diversity too. In the U.S. of course, traditional raw milk based cheese and yogurt is very hard to find in many states, and often illegal.
I count it as one of my life’s many blessings that there was a period of time some years back when I was able to sip live-fermented traditional wine and partake of raw milk cheese simultaneously. An ancient cuisine going back 3000 years!
