Why would wine give me an instant headache after just a few sips? i drink wine occasionally, socially, but this does not happen every time, it only happened with one specific wine. do some wines have higher chemical content that cause this reaction?

What is your ethnicity? Some ethnic groups -- especially East Asian (Japanese, Korean, etc) -- have a genetic mutation that reduces alcohol tolerance. Occurring some times but not others may be related to other factors, like food intake. If this applies to you, it's probably the alcohol, not other chemicals in the wine. Non-Asians can have a similar tendency. Discuss with your doctor. Good luck.

If it's red wine, ingredients like histamine, tannins& sulfites may be the cause of the headache. As has been mentioned ingestion of food may increase or decrease the threshold for the headaches.