I was sent a bottle of Clean Wine for free, in return for an honest review
Near the start of lockdown I was contacted by the lovely guys at Clean Wine (www.cleanwine.co.uk) who asked if they could send me their little wonder spray that you add to your wine before you drink it which supposedly eliminates, or at least radically diminishes your hangover the next day. Hmm, sounds a bit like snake oil to me. However, with a long drawn out summer in the house ahead of us, and a significant increase of white wine consumed at weekends to ease the boredom, I was willing to try anything!
If anyone knows anything about me, it’s how much I love my white wine. I mean honestly, there’s people I don’t know massively well at work, but i’ll somehow have mentioned my love for the mighty grape juice and will start a conversation about our favourite brands. I like to think that it brings people together in some way!
*Jennifer Aniston voice* here’s the science: Certain chemicals in wine aggravate the effects of a hangover. That’s why some people report worse hangovers after drinking wine compared to, say, having a few gin & tonics. Clean Wine removes these compounds with its special formula, which contains vitamins and plant extracts, to prevent the dreaded wine hangover.
It works by a process of ‘cleaning’ the wine by removing chemical compounds that are known to aggravate hangovers. The chemicals are found, to a lesser extent, in other alcoholic drinks and so despite the name, Clean Wine will treat other drinks as well, although possibly not as successfully.
Despite some initial scepticism, they assure you on their website that it has been launched after significant research & development and the science is backed up by double-blind clinically proven studies.
It comes in a really handy little metal canister (very handbag friendly!) and 2-3 sprays in your glass before you pour the wine, give it a swirl and you’re good to go. One little bottle, at £7.50, treats about 100 glasses of wine.
So, does it work? Well, the first time I tried it, the first thing I noticed was that it takes away the sharpness of the wine. I’ll admit, we don’t always drink the best quality wine, especially in lockdown where we’ve upgraded to wine by the box, so the fact that it altered the taste ever so slightly for the better, was a nice surprise.
Did it eliminate my hangover though? Yes and no. I can categorically say that my hangover was markedly reduced the next morning. I probably drank the equivalent of just over a bottle of wine over the course of the evening and sprayed every glass. The next morning, whereas I could still tell I’d had a drink, in terms of that dry mouth, groggy, groaning as you lift your head off the pillow feeling, that wasn’t there. I was feeling surprisingly spritely. I didn’t bounce of of bed with all the joys of spring though so wouldn’t say it rid me of any kind of hangover completely.
And you know, in the name of science, I tried it over a couple of other weekends too to make sure it wasn’t just a one off, and had pretty much the same results.
I guess it all depends on how much you drink and how badly wine affects you Let’s be honest, if you smash through 2 bottles of wine on and evening, you’re probably still going to feel pretty crappy in the morning, it’s not a miracle cure!
But if you suffer badly from wine hangovers, and want something to take the edge off the next morning because you have to be up early with the kids, or want to go for a run, or just simply enjoy a fresher lie in, it’s probably a canny little investment!
*as always, please drink responsibility*
