Wine ranks as a popular beverage that has stood the test of time, lending an effortless elegance to any occasion. 

But is wine good for your health?

Opinions on whether drinking wine has health benefits have yielded a blend of responses. A recent Gallup poll found that a record low of 54% of Americans acknowledge drinking alcohol, and a record high of 45% now view moderate drinking as unhealthy. In January 2025, then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a public health advisory declaring that alcohol was a leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States after tobacco and obesity. The new U.S. Dietary Guidelines (DGA), announced Jan. 7 by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed restrictions on alcoholic drinks, which previously advised limiting intake to one to two drinks daily, adding to the uncertainty. 

However, as pointed out in a recent publication by UC Davis scientists, the complex matrix of wine — composed of thousands of plant- and fermentation-derived compounds—is unlike distilled spirits. Yet, public health recommendations related to alcohol intake do not take such factors into account. 

In September, a group of experts came together to talk about the big question: Is wine really healthy? The answer isn’t simple — it’s nuanced, shaped by scientific evidence, cultural context, drinking patterns and individual biology. But interestingly, wine could be more than a drink when you combine it with certain foods, and the health effects may in fact vary depending on your gut microbiome. 

A part of the 2025 Robert Mondavi Institute's Savor series event, in partnership with the UC Davis Library, the panel featuring Laura Catena, Sean Adams and Lisa Jacobson explored questions citing emerging research while discussing longstanding ideas about what’s in your wine glass. The session was moderated by Andrew Waterhouse, professor emeritus of enology at UC Davis with decades of experience on the health effects of wine. We bottled up all of the insight for you in the following summary. 

Moderate consumption of alcohol vs. no alcohol at all 

Catena, an author, biologist, physician, fourth-generation vintner and a member of the executive leadership board in the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, highlighted a January 2025 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and health outcomes, including all-cause mortality, cardiovascular death and certain types of cancer. The studies were adjusted for major confounders including age, sex, socioeconomic factors, physical activity, smoking, comorbidity and body habitus. 

Per the report, moderate drinking –– defined by the 2020 DGA, , as up to one drink per day for women and two for men –– is associated with lowering the risk of all-cause mortality by 16% to 23%, and of cardiovascular death by 18% to 23%, as compared to those who never consume alcohol. However, the report also found that moderate drinking can increase the risk of female breast cancer by 5% to 10%.

Effects of alcohol consumption on cardiovascular disease

Catena pointed to another review article published by the American Heart Association in June 2025, on the relationship between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease. The review includes mostly observational evidence (i.e., self-reporting), which appears to be less accurate for heavier alcohol consumption, though some small-scale randomized control trials, or RCTs, were included. The observational evidence, however, points to an increased risk of high blood pressure for more than even one drink per day. Per the RCTs, the evidence showed that consuming one to two drinks per day made no difference on blood pressure, but more than that increased the risk. For coronary disease, stroke, sudden death and heart failure, the observational evidence also suggested that one to two drinks per day lowered the risk or made no difference, but three or more drinks per day increases the risk. Furthermore, the studies found that consuming more than one drink per day to heavy drinking, per RCT and observational evidence, respectively, increases the risk of atrial fibrillation.

Catena also argued that comparing wine to tobacco is misleading — even tiny amounts of smoking increase mortality, whereas moderate drinking of wine can reduce the relative risk of total mortality. Multiple large observational studies consistently show a J‑shaped relationship between alcohol intake and mortality, where moderate drinkers live longer on average than both heavy drinkers and abstainers. It’s important to note that individuals under age 40 do not receive cardiovascular benefits from alcohol and face higher risk of alcohol‑related harms. 

Wine as a complex fermented food

The chemical composition of wine comprises thousands of bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, peptides, lipids, fatty acids, complex carbohydrates and proteins, as reported in a study that used mass spectroscopy-based phytochemical screening. 

Adams, professor and vice chair in the Department of Surgery and scientific director for the UC Davis Center for Alimentary and Metabolic Science, emphasized that it’s essential to move from examining the effects of isolated compounds on health to analyzing the full food matrix with context, as detailed in this recent report. 

“Wine is typically consumed with food. Not only is the wine itself very complex in its molecular makeup, but when you pair it with food, it gets very, very complex.” Adams argued that focusing on one ingredient like ethanol or resveratrol without context is scientifically flawed; the health effects may in fact vary depending on what wine is consumed with, in addition to the consumer’s lifestyle and gut microbiome. 

As technologies reveal more metabolites, messaging may evolve, and wine may be seen less as “alcohol” and more as a complex fermented food with physiological effects. He imagined a future in which wine pairings with foods could be optimized for health, not just flavor.

Impact of gut microbes on wine and health

Adams said that gut microbes have a tremendous metabolic potential to transform food and beverages, including wine, and produce unique health-impacting compounds. He estimated that more than one-fifth of the tens of thousands of metabolites found in our blood originate from gut microbiome, many of which may play roles in inflammation, metabolism and chronic diseases.

While moderate wine consumption has been linked to cardiovascular benefits and potentially positive shifts in gut microbiome diversity, scientists point out a key blind spot: Wine is almost always consumed with other foods, yet little is known about how food matrices interact with wine’s intricate mix of compounds to shape gut function and health. 

Evolution of consumer perception of wine consumption 

Jacobson, a professor of history at UC Santa Barbara and author of Intoxicating Pleasures: The Reinvention of Wine, Beer, and Whiskey after Prohibition, framed current attitudes toward wine as part of a cultural reinvention. She emphasized that science and culture are intertwined, and that the context in which alcohol is consumed has always shaped its perceived health effects. Mealtime drinking, social settings and cultural norms are all part of that context. 

She refers to the 19th- and early 20th-century temperance movement that advocated for reduced or total abstinence from alcohol, as well as the post-Prohibition wine marketing campaigns in the United States that positioned moderate drinking as an emblem of gracious living and domestic harmony — rehabilitating wine’s image and distinguishing it from excess consumption. But now, Jacobson said that consumers may be witnessing a major cultural shift: the reputational demotion of the moderate drinker.

“For the first time since World War II, alcohol’s place as an emblem of the good life may, in fact, be in jeopardy,” said Jacobson. Changing cultural norms are already having a notable impact on alcohol purchasing. She shared that sales of mocktails have risen, while sales of alcoholic beverages have fallen across all categories. According to one study, 69% of people aged 18 to 24 now prefer cannabis to alcohol. This suggested that the younger generation may be rethinking choices about their consumption patterns.

New frontiers on wine research

One of the new frontiers of wine research lies in first understanding the gut microbiome’s impact on wine and food combinations, and then having robust scientific discoveries inform strategic and personalized combinations of wines and foods that support specific health outcomes, according to Adams. 

He pointed to a study aimed at doing a bioregional characterization of metabolites within the gut following food and beverage intake by investigating time-series samples collected from the upper gastrointestinal tract. New frontiers also point in the direction of using SIMBA (Small Intestinal Multi-omics Biological Aspiration) or CapScan capsules to collect high-quality intestinal fluid biopsy from previously inaccessible regions in the intestine. This fluid could be analyzed for detailed microbiome and metabolite profiling, which can deepen our understanding of the impact of wine and food combinations on health outcomes. 

Watch the full discussion here.