When Buying Cheap Wine, Opt For A Bottle Made From Organic Grapes

Unless you're hosting a dinner party for a group of master sommeliers, there's really no need to spring for the priciest bottle of vino on the rack. In fact, the price of wine often doesn't reflect its quality, so opting for a more budget-friendly selection probably won't result in ruining your dinner. It might, however, run the risk of ruining your morning. If you've ever enjoyed a glass (or three) of cheap wine in the midst of your revelry, chances are you've experienced that dreaded wine hangover (aka wine flu) the next day. But if you don't want to sacrifice your wallet whenever you're craving a hearty pour, you can save yourself a headache (in more ways than one) by grabbing an affordable bottle made with organic grapes.

Why? Well, simply put, organic wine has stricter regulations to meet during the production process and tends to contain fewer additives that people associate with headaches overall. On the lower end of the price spectrum, many mass-market products tend to include more additives, which serve as a money-saving shortcut to achieving a palatable flavor sans the need for expensive winemaking practices. Many cheap wines come loaded with added sugars for sweetness, tannins for full-bodiedness, and sulfites for shelf life. While all of these are naturally present in wine, lower priced, non-organic products tend to contain artificially added and higher amounts of them. That's not to say that each of those substances on their own are responsible for those infamous wine headaches, though.

Although sulfites, natural preservative compounds in wines, have long been blamed for those rough effects, evidence suggests this is a myth. So, while organic wine produced in the U.S. must not contain any extra sulfites added by the producer, that alone won't have much of a bearing on your hangover unless you have a sensitivity. However, the lack of additional sulfites may affect the wine's taste, texture, and aroma. (It's also worth noting that organically classified wines in Europe and Canada may still contain added sulfites, even if they are made with organic grapes.) Excess sugar, however, has been said to worsen hangovers, while the way the body processes tannins can lead to headaches.

Another consideration is that to qualify as organic, the grapes used to make wine must be grown without the use of chemical-laden herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers. Indeed, Sharp Magazine drinks columnist and "Hungover" author Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall even posits that the pesticides used in standard grape-growing may have something to do with those harsh migraines. If so, organically grown grapes, by their very nature, might be why organic wine tends to minimize the morning-after effects.

Since affordable organic wine tends to contain fewer potential triggers than regular cheap wine, that's reason enough to stick with it. So the next time you head to a place like Trader Joe's for budget-friendly wine, keep an eye out for an organic label. You might be glad you did in the morning.