Last column I was spitting. This column I am sipping. And you can too as a majority of the top award winners in the 2007 Indy International Wine Competition are available at local wine, grocery and liquor stores.

Double GOLD/Best of Class wines to find:

Complete results at www.indianawines.org

A recent study in the journal Atherosclerosis reports that drinking red wine can reduce the negative effect of a high fat diet. Listen up Union Jack Deep Dish Pizza lovers and Boogie Burger fans. Researchers gave lucky people. . . I mean. . . Participants. . . Red wine, brandy, vodka, rum and non-alcoholic beverages along with a diet that consisted of 44 percent fat, 22 percent of it saturated. Then they tested blood cholesterol levels to see what the damage might be. The levels of all partaking were high but results showed those who drank red wine had the best numbers followed by brandy, rum, vodka and non-alcoholic drinks. The last two barely registered, but wine and brandy drinkers' blood tests seemed to help offset the artery clogging saturated fats the best.