Are you one of those unhappy wine lovers who can't tolerate reds? Take heart - the cure for red-wine headache (RWH) has been found. The only problem: You can't have it.

True RWH is not a morning-after woe - that's called a hangover. The real thing hits within a half-hour, or even after a couple of sips.

While sulfites often get the blame, they may be innocent. America requires the ominous warning "contains sulfites" if the level exceeds 10 parts per million, but all wines contain that, since SO2 occurs naturally on grape skins. The amount is a moot point anyway, unless you're a severely steroid-dependent asthmatic. If so, you react more violently to prescription drugs, dried fruits, pickles, Chinese food and frozen french fries, all of which have far more SO2 than wine does.

It's not histamines, either, unless your headache comes with itching, sneezing, shortness of breath and diarrhea. If so, take a non-drowsy-formula antihistamine before drinking to prevent the reaction.

Prostaglandin, which some people can't metabolize, is another falsely accused suspect. Sufferers get results from prostaglandin inhibitors like ibuprofen, as well as aspirin. The government started worrying about allergies to additives like egg whites, casein (milk protein) and isinglass (fish bladder), used for clarifying. But only minute amounts are left in the finished wine.

But now a recent study by University of California professor David Mills reports that the real culprit is amines. Wine goes through two fermentations. In the first, yeast turns sugar into alcohol. The second uses bacteria to transform sharp, green-appley malic acid into the creamier lactic kind. During the latter, called malolactic conversion, bad bacteria can produce these amines, which give some people a headache.

So researchers inserted a gene from a bacterium and a second gene from a wild yeast into the DNA of a commercial wine yeast. The result is a yeast called ML01, which can handle both fermentations all by itself.

Seems like a good idea, but not so fast. Some experts claim the bacterium added flavor and aroma necessary to wine (although an independent taste test contradicted that, finding the ML01 wine richer and fuller).

The main problem is genetic engineering. Wine likes to bill itself as an artisanal craft, unsullied by lab-constructed Frankenfoods. Mendocino, Trinity, Marin and Santa Cruz counties have banned the growing of genetically engineered crops. Australia's wine industry has taken an official position against the use of the new yeast. In Europe, all food made with GE ingredients has to say so prominently on the label. It's a headache for U.S. food companies that can't export anything with GE ingredients to EU countries. In fact, outside the United States, only Moldova, in eastern Europe, allows winemakers to use the yeast.

A few American wines made with the ML01 yeast will hit the shelves this year, but there's no way of knowing which they are, since we don't require a label.

So what's a headache sufferer to do? Well, while virtually all reds go through malolactic conversion, many whites don't. You could limit yourself to these, usually young, steely types, the kind that wouldn't go in oak barrels, either. Sauvignon blanc and Riesling, for example.

But none of this explains why people report far fewer RWH's when drinking in Europe. It could be simply because European wines tend to have less alcohol than ours. Another reason has to do with how you drink. We often walk around a party nursing a glass or two or three, but traditional European dinners often don't break out the wine until the meal has started. By then, you have food in your stomach and you're not as likely to chug the stuff down.

Meanwhile, enjoy becoming a connoisseur of whites, and when the cure is finally available, reds will taste that much better for the waiting.

Recommended

WHITE

• Clean Slate Riesling 2005 (Germany) $11

• Ponzi Pinot Gris Willamette Valley 2005 (U.S.) $17

• Inama Vulcaia Fumé Sauvignon del Veneto 2002 (Italy) $18

• Merry Edwards Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (U.S.) $27

RED

• Tenuta Cocci Grifoni Le Torri Rosso Piceno Superiore 2003 (Italy) $15

• Shardana Valli di Porto Pino Carignano 2001 (Sardinia) $26

• Buena Vista Carneros Pinot Noir 2004 (U.S.) $37

Jester@corkjester.com