At this time of year, every year, I end up in the same argument with my wife. I’m still stuck in my cozy red wine rut and my wife, always a step or a hundred ahead, has moved on to thoughts of warmer weather and whiter wines. As I write, we are planning to have seafood lasagna for dinner. Obvious argument: red for a rich pasta dish, white for seafood. It’s always a matter of what we’re in the mood for and tonight we’re in the mood for … er … discussion.

Although my true love is a full-bodied red, I do enjoy white wine. I have gained more appreciation for the different nuances that come with drinking whites. Where a great red wine is a completely sensual experience for me, my favourite whites provide an intriguing escape. Where reds pique the intellectual curiosity in me, whites provide a simpler, more light-hearted enjoyment.

The main difference between red and white wine is that in the production of red, the skins, stems, and seeds are included, while they are excluded for white wine making. This is important for two reasons. First, it is primarily the skins that colour the wine. So you can produce white wine using dark-skinned grapes, so long as you leave out those colourful skins.

The second impact of the skins, stems, and seeds is that they provide the tannins in red wines. Tannins help to prevent oxidation in wine and thus are very beneficial to the aging process, as well as providing complexity to the wine. There is much discussion about how some tannins are beneficial to proper blood flow. (I love reading about health benefits from things like wine and chocolate.)

Upon further study of the benefits, however, researchers have found that even though red wine has higher levels of antioxidants, the antioxidant molecules in whites are smaller and thus more readily absorbable. So I can no longer use health benefits in my argument with my wife.

White wine also plays an important role in the history of my favourite beverage. Historians do not know the exact details of the first production of wine, but many believe that it was likely an accidental occurrence of what we now call the Muscat grape fermenting in the presence of wild yeasts somewhere in Egypt or nearby Persia. Thus, it is highly likely that white wine was the original, with red developing later. And while red wine has historically been used in burial rituals, a recent discovery showed that clay amphorae from Tutankhamun’s tomb contained the residue of white wine.

There’s a lot more to white wine than I usually give it credit for, but I hope my wife will pardon me if I wait until the weather warms up just a little more.

By the way, as if there was any doubt, we had white with our pasta.

Greg Thomson is the Women's Post wine reviewer. His wife is often right.