Man Who Drank Four Bottles Of Red Wine A Day Lives To 107: ‘He Would Never Drink Water’

For all you connoisseurs of the grape and aficionados of the “vino,” here’s some good news for you: guzzling copious amounts of red wine is extremely beneficial for your health — or at least it was in the case of a certain Spaniard who lived to the ripe old age of 107.

The Independent reports that recently-deceased Antonio Docampo Garcia, who passed away last week in northwestern Spain, lived a long and fruitful life, and imbibed nothing but homemade red wine throughout most of his 107 years on the planet.

Health experts recently announced that drinking more than one glass of red wine a day significantly raises your risk of getting cancer, and that nearly ruined everyone’s evening tipple, but then along comes the tale of a fearless free spirit such as Antonio, who imbibed four bottles of his own homemade red wine each and every day, and it looks very much like the party is back on for those who appreciate a full-bodied vintage.

Not that excessive binging on alcohol is ever advised, and even if it was, most of us would be hard pressed to but away four bottles of the good stuff on a daily basis. Yet Antonio’s heroic intake and warrior like attitude to booze, is testament to the old adage that sometimes you’ve got to measure the medicine to the man and not the man to the medicine.

And after 107 years of drinking two bottles of red wine with his lunch and two with dinner, the magic medicine of the grape certainly appeared to do Antonio no harm.

The wine drinker’s son, Miguel Docampo López, told La Voz de Galicia, that Antonio not only drank hundreds of litres of wine a month, he also never drank water.

“He could drink a liter and a half all at once. When we were both at home we could get through 200 litres of wine a month. He never drank water.”

Antonio may have enjoyed more red wine in a month than most uncultured philistines do in a year, but here’s the rub. He only drank the organic, chemical-free wine he produced himself.

After fighting for Franco in the Spanish Civil War, the wine lover set up his own vineyard in the town of Ribadavia and founded the company Bodegas Docampo.

Obviously the maxim of never getting high on your own supply was alien to Antonio’s fun loving nature, but at least he kept it organic and free of chemicals, the way the good god Dionysus intended it.

Antonio’s nephew, Jerónimo Docampo, who now runs the vineyard, explained how his uncle sold the majority of his harvest but still get a sizable share back to immerse himself in when the mood was right and the lights were low.

“He sold the majority of the wine he produced, but still kept a decent amount back for himself. If he produced 60,000 litres a year he would keep 3,000 litres for himself. He always said that was his secret to living so long.”

So there we have it folks. Just like a vampire’s secret to immortality is to drink human blood on a regular basis, then maybe a party animal’s secret is to party hard and long and keep the red wine flowing.

As Frank Sinatra once said, “Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.”

Cheers!

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)