A Wine For Every Body

A vineyard is a beautiful sight to behold in the spring with its freshly manicured grape vines giving birth to new limbs with clusters of buds and the promise of ripe fruit. During the fall harvest season, the now pampered globes are collected and relocated to the winery where the fruit is processed into red, white or sparkling (i.e., champagne) wine. While a particular wine is determined by its grape or other fruit component, nearly all wines provide a liquid opportunity to share in the health supporting profile of this splendid fruit.

Wine is a historically diverse beverage, used in an infinite variety of recipes with dishes like beef and seafood, as well as in flavorful punches. Even mead, or honey wine, is an enthusiastic addition to the wine marketplace enjoying renewed appreciation for its versatility and distinct flavor. Wine's multi-faceted talent does not end in the kitchen, however. Wine also makes a wonderful, healthy base for soap by bringing the antioxidant-rich profile and nutritional value in grapes and other fruits to the soap making pot and hence, to skin care. The fermentation process used to make wine allows we soap makers access to fruit and berries and hence, to a broader range of skin-loving nutrients not otherwise available due to its perishable nature. Even preservatives can not significantly increase fruit’s shelf life as a soap ingredient, an addition which ultimately compromises the basic tenure of "natural soap." While honey can be added directly to the soap pot, mead allows for a larger serving and provides the distinct fragrance and color of honey. In its melomel form, i.e., combined with fruit, mead blends the anti-bacterial and skin-healing attributes of honey with a fruit’s nutrient profile for an extraordinary skin-loving ritual via a simple bar of natural soap.

Grapes contain the anti-oxidant quercetin, flavonoids, minerals and vitamins. The beautiful color of red wine is derived from the grapes' flavonoid content. Red grape skin and seeds also contain resveratrol, a chemical receiving a lot of press lately for its health-promoting properties. Resveratrol is thought to provide red wine with anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal properties. When added to soap, these qualities may become directly available to the skin via the cleansing routine. Because of its unique astringent quality, essential fatty acids and vitamin (including vitamin E) profile, I also blend a liberal helping of grapeseed oil into nearly all my Winery soap formulas. The beautiful green tint found in grapeseed oil comes from its chlorophyll content; chlorophyll's importance to plants is considered equal in importance to human blood. In addition to providing a deodorizing factor, chlorophyll is studied for its potential anti-cancer effects. Grapeseed oil contains abundant anti-oxidants and with its ability to support and nourish the epithelium/skin cells, makes a wonderful skin care ingredient. This characteristic also encourages damaged tissue to regenerate restoring the skin's moisture-retention capacity.

Along with nutrients, wine adds a superb lather-boosting element to soap due to fruit's natural sugar content -- some soap makers add a bit of refined sugar to a batch just to increase lather. By using fruit wines, however, this boosting mechanism is achieved via a natural sugar complex. With its rich, multi-layered bouquet, wine adds a distinct aroma note to a soap blend as well. Since grape wines tend to have complex fragrances, wine provides a distinct aroma landscape not otherwise available in a natural form.

Not only do fruit wines such as strawberry or raspberry provide their health-promoting nutrient profiles to soap, they lend the distinct fragrance of these extremely popular fruits to the soap bar. In addition to being attributed with aphrodisiac qualities, strawberries contain anti-oxidants along with several vitamins include C and K. Being highly perishable in its raw state, the nutritional profile of strawberries becomes directly available to the skin through strawberry wine soap. Our "True Love" soap is made with 100% strawberry wine and has a mild strawberry fragrance. Swirled with dark chocolate, packed with anti-oxidants, this dense-lathering bar soap is a healthy treat for both the senses and skin alike.

Raspberries, too, are packed with vitamins and contain ellagic acid, a compound found to have anti-carcinogenic activity on skin cancer cells as well as other cancers. When fermented into wine, the highly perishable nature of raspberries is transformed allowing our skin the opportunity to directly benefit from its nutrient content. There is a wide variety of fruit wines available on the market, including elderberry, cranberry and blackberry, each of which may offer distinct skin care benefits through soap making. Even mead, or honey wine, adds a distinct, fabulous element to bar soap. Along with its amino acid content, the skin care and healing attributes of honey are well documented and with its particular sugar profile, mead soap has a lush lather, intriguing fragrance and unusual look.

No wine soap would be possible without first removing the alcohol content from the wine. Not only does alcohol inhibit the chemical reaction necessary to the soap making process, it also dries the skin. While nearly any wine can be mixed into soap, I prefer working with 100% fruit wine rather than flavored wines, and mead in nearly any form or combination of ingredients. By adding a de-sparkling step to the soap making process, elegant champagne becomes another goldmine in my quest for an assortment of nutrient-rich, all-natural handcrafted soap blends. Champagne makes a remarkable soap with a fabulous skin care profile and brings an elegant touch to an otherwise ordinary routine. Our "Mimosa" champagne soap, with orange essential oil and Vitamin C-rich rosehip swirls, is modeled after the famous brunch beverage and a distinct bathing experience.

Wine and champagne soap is a wonderful, luxurious cleansing and moisturizing experience. When incorporated into soap, these time-tested beverages add health supporting characteristics to everyone's skin care regimen. Special occasions and special harvests become memorialized events when fine spirits in soap are added. And when coupled with that special person, a simple bathing routine can become a romantic interlude, too. In addition, wine soap gives a whole new meaning to BYOB (Bring Your Own Bar) on an invitation. When attending such an event, along with its liquid form, be sure to include a lovely wine soap for the host. Salute!

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