Sulfites in wine give writer a headache

She remained unconvinced of my sincerity, became a tad more vociferous and I had to hang up on her.

There are a ton of compounds in wine, many of which are a byproduct of the amazingly complex fermentation process. One of them is sulfites. Even “sulfite-free” wine has sulfites, just not above the threshold set by government regulators. Sulfites also crop up in wines from another, more insidious source — evil American winemakers!

I have been told, excuse me, strongly redressed more than once that saintly European winemakers do not add any sulfites to their wines. This is reason why we should only buy European wines to avoid side effects like headaches and anaphylaxis. Since this column is more of a one-way discussion (that is until people start calling me up or lighting up the blogosphere), I can, without interruption, say that winemakers have been using sulfur dioxide in grape growing and wine-making for centuries. In fact, the Europeans are the ones who taught us how to use sulfur dioxide to reduce oxidation and bacterial/mold growth in wines.

If a winemaker uses sulfur dioxide in excess, you know it. The wine will smell like rotten eggs. That wine will also have elevated sulfite levels, which are a byproduct of sulfur dioxide being added in one form or another. Most winemakers’ goals are not to have wines that smell like rotten eggs, so they merely use enough sulfur dioxide to keep the bugs out. Even at low levels, the addition of sulfur dioxide will put wineries over the threshold of “sulfite-free” status, hence the label requirement.

There are very, very few wineries out there that can avoid the “sulfite-free” label and not many winemakers who want to. If they removed this basic tool, sulfur dioxide, from their tool chest, one or two things would happen: 1.) The intensive filtering process to remove every last speck of bacteria and mold would also strip the wines of a lot of their flavors and aromas. 2.) Spoiled wine…or some serious risk for it. Thousands of cases of spoiled wine severely reduces a winemaker’s year-end bonus.

There are number of wineries that prey on the public’s fear of sulfites (and I should fairly mention that these wineries also serve the approximate one percent of the population who must concern themselves with sulfite reactions). I ran into one just the other day. It is called Our Daily Red and boasts its lack of detectable sulfites. It also emphasizes that it is pretty darned organic. The word “organic” appears no less than seven times on the labeling.

For some reason, organic grape growing and winemaking has been confused with the issue of sulfites. Organic wine, depending upon which certifying organization you talk to, suggests the absence pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, chemical fertilizers or synthetic chemicals. Since sulfur dioxide naturally occurs during the fermentation process and sulfur is a non-synthetic chemical found in nature, the vast majority of organic wineries add sulfur dioxide to their wines. Certifying organizations do have limits to the amounts of residual sulfites in wine, but these levels are typically higher than any reasonable winemaker would want to have in his or her wine.

I’ve never forgotten that women on the phone and would hope that my bringing this Daily Red wine to the attention of my readers (both of them), would somehow serve as a peace offering.

Gil Kulers is a certified wine educator with the Society of Wine Educators and teaches in-home wine classes. You can reach him at Gil.Kulers@WineKulers.com.

2008 Our Daily Red, California

$9

One Thumb Up

Aromas of black cherry and bell peppers with a slight medicinal quality. Pleasant but somewhat aggressive flavors of cola, black cherry, cedar, dark chocolate and black pepper.

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