Some of my friends and family have told me that, while they enjoy reading my blog, they can’t try much of the wine I talk about because of how it makes them feel.

Headaches, redness and swelling in the face are common side effects of drinking red wine. While there is no exact reason to point to for this, health.harvard.edu lists three possible culprits:

The first is histamines. Histamines are found in grape skin, and show up more in red wine due to the fact that it requires the use of the whole grape, not just the juice like white wine. There is an enzyme that is able to break down histamines in the small intestine, but some people are lacking in this enzyme, making the breakdown more difficult. This can cause a rise in histamine in the blood level which can dilate blood vessels, leading to a painful headache.

The second possible explanation is the presence of tannins. Tannins are also found in the grape skin and can trigger the release of serotonin. Too much of that can causes headaches in certain people.

The last explanation is the sulfites acting in wine preservation. A small percentage of the population has a sensitivity to sulfites, though it usually takes the form of respiratory issues rather than migraines.

These factors do vary from wine to wine, so you could try out different varieties and see how they affect you personally. Or, you could try a magic wand.

The Wand is a device created by the company PureWine to remove all those “nasties” that can potentially cause headaches in both red and white wine, which actually usually contains more sulfites.

It’s a small, single-use sort of stirring stick that also claims to aerate wine with a single three minute stir as if you had been decanting it for 10x that amount of time.

In an interview with Vice, The Wand’s creator, Andrea Barter explains it work’s by “using ionic exchange resin beads that operate using nano-pour technology to pull things out of the wine…. You’re getting a cleaner wine.”

That’s easy enough to say, but does it actually work?

According to over 1,000 Amazon customers, yes.

The Wand currently has a 4.3 out of 5 star rating on Amazon and a plethora of glowing reviews calling it “magic” and a “life-saver.” PureWine has even added The Wave to their product lineup, which is a bottle attachment that filters wine as it’s poured.

Despite being single-use, both The Wand and The Wave can be recycled once the filter is removed.

Though I haven’t tried it, I personally think it might be difficult to remove all those ailment-causing properties in wine with just a stir, but the reviews seem to speak for themselves.

What do you think? Will you be trying this product out, or do you think it’s a pass? Let me know in the comments below!