Anecdotal evidence about the health benefits of red wine have been bouncing around for some decades now, but here biochemists, microbiologists, and other researchers get down to the fundamental science. They revise the principal strategies for characterizing red wines by using compositional profiles of biogenic amines as a source of information, and emphasizing toxicological and organoleptic repercussions associated with the presence of these natural components. They also characterize red wine through dielectric parameters--an approach rarely even mentioned at better wine tastings. The topic include reasons for the variation in red wine phenolics, methods for determining natural antioxidants, enhancing the safety and healthiness by selected microbial starters, whether oak aging improves the antioxidant activity of red wines, red wine and vascular endothelium, kidney protection by enhancing the antioxidant defense system, authentication and traceability studies on wine, and dielectric properties and wines impasses. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)