What kind of wine is healthiest for you? Well, reds have significantly higher antioxidant content than whites. Your typical red table wine is the 2nd highest tested among all wines. The only one higher - and marginally at that - is cabernet sauvignon. Unfortunately a large percentage of the population complains about headaches when drinking reds. Many believe this is due to the sulfites, but evidence points to that not being the case. In a 2015 Wall Street Journal article, Dr. David Lang, the Chairman of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology department at the Cleveland Clinic, stated that less than 1% of Americans suffer from a true sulfite allergy. Furthermore, since white wines actually have more sulfites than reds, it means you can't blame that glass of merlot for your headache. Perhaps more likely the cause is even moderate consumption of wine without food.
ORAC Source
USDA Database for the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) of Selected Foods, Release 2 - Prepared by Nutrient Data Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center (BHNRC), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) - May 2010