Why are there sulfites in wine? I think I am allergic to them.

Sulfites are a naturally occurring compound that nature uses to prevent microbial growth. They are found on grapes, onions, garlic, and on many other growing plants. No wine can ever be "sulfite free", since they come in with the grapes.

http://www.wineintro.com/glossary/s/sulfites.html

They do make wines that are very low in sulfites by not ADDING more sulfites to the wine. Normally they add in sulfites to help the wine age well. If you get a no-sulfites-added wine then you should be prepared to drink it in a month or two.

Why do you think so?

Sulfites occur naturally in many everyday foods and drinks. Even bottled water! Just read the list of ingredients on the side of a bottle of mineral water and you'll find sulfites.

Unless you are one of something 1% of those people who have asthma for whom the warning is there, then it is almost certain you are not allergic to sulfites in wine. And if you are, you'llknow about it already because you'll be affected by orange and other fruits juices, dried fruits and products (like cakes) than contain them. eggs and many other products.

Bottled water has sulfites in it?? That is really odd!

I do have reactions to dried apricots.

*All* wines contain sulfites.

You'd best not drink any wines in that case, sorry.

too much sulfites is bad for health. there are wines that were not made with too much sulfite provided there are other compounds mixed so wines can last longer.

No wine is made with too much sulfites. Amount is strictly limited by law.

Too much of anything is bad for your health. Sulfites are good because they kill bad bacteria, sterilise and preserve.

Sulfites have been used in winemaking for almost as long as people have been making wine.

If it wasn't for the message on labels, no one outside a few geeks would ever know sulfites were used.

I have mixed feelings about dumping as many sulfites as you are allowed to in a wine. I know many winemakers around here who work hard to have low sulfite wines. They are extremely strict about sterilizing equipment and so on. The downside is that their wines are drink-quick wines, so you buy them and drink them in a few months. The wines are very tasty, but they aren't meant to age. The upside is that you really don't have any allergic reactions at all to them if you're sensitive to sulfites. So it's one of those trade-offs.

I'm not convinced.

The maximum amount of sulfites allowed in wine is very low.

I don't believe that sulfites are responsible for 'allergic' reactions reported. The warning is there because there are a very very small number of asthmatics who do have a serious reaction.

Getting a headache after drinking wine, which many report, is not an allergy or reaction to sulfites.

I have been taking part in wine discussions online for a great many years and recall many posts from American's complaining about sulfites in American wines who sai dthat when theywere in Europe they drank wine every day and never had a problem and the reason was that European wines didn't have sulfites. Not so, its just that the labels of wines sold in Europe didn'thave the warning on.

You never heard British people on wine or other forums complaining about sulfites in wine: that was until a couple of years ago when the EU ruled that we too had to have the 'contains sulfites' warning. Since then complaints of reactions to sulfites have started.

I definitely agree with you on the "drinking wine in Europe" argument, I had to write an entire article about that topic to point people at -

http://www.wineintro.com/basics/health/headaches.html

However, I do know a few people who are legitimately sensitive to sulfites and can prove it by eating sulfite-high food and having a reaction. It could be that people from certain ethnic backgrounds are more sensitive than people from other ethnic backgrounds, so that I happen to know people who are allergic but other people never run into an allergic person ...

I am not suggesting that some people do not react to some wines, but there are a number of factors, especially histamines, that are more likely to be the cause.

Its known that people who are asthmatics can be affected by sulfites, and that about 1% of people with asthma are at serious risk from sulfites, which is why they warning is on the label.

But they will not have reached drinking age without knowing it and they should not be drinking wine at all. Beacause ALL wines contain sulfites, even though the levels permitted in wines is much lower than on other food stuffs.

There is no medical evidence that sulfites cause headaches.

I have just been printing out some fact sheets about wines for upcoming tastings and some have the lab results which include sulfite levels.

Here's one
Free SO2 48mg/L
Total SO2 99mg/L
Another

Free SO2 50mg/L
Total SO2 130mg/L

There's the thing about free and bound SO2 but I'd have to go and refresh myself with the text books before going any further.

I am not allergic to sulfites, added or not. I am health conscious and I enjoy nutrition, so for me buying organic NSA wines isn't about not having an allergic reaction, it's about taking my love of wine to a MORE nutritional level and by that feeling better about it. Wine itself has 'naturally' occuring sulfites in it, however, to make wine last for decades they have 'synthetic' sulfites added to them. USDA will not label a product as organic that has any sulfites added, because it is a synthetic addition and therefore NOT natural.

I copied and pasted this from the Frey Organic wine website:

Organic Wine: Under 10 ppm naturally occurring sulfite
Biodynamic Wine: 100 ppm added sulfite
“Made with Organic Grapes” wine: 150 ppm added sulfite
All other wine: 350 ppm added sulfite

As I said before I don't have allergic reactions to the sulfites in wine synthetic or naturally occuring, but for me it is peace of mind and feeling good about drinking wine with 10 ppm naturally occuring sulfites as opposed to 350 ppm added 'synthetic' sulfites.

When I dine out I am limited to the wines that are offered and I won't refuse them, but when I am buying for myself to enjoy at home, I feel better knowing that I have invested in a 'healthier' product. I am not concerned in keeping wine for aging....so a 1-2 month limit is perfect for me and they would probably last a bit longer than that (unopened) anyway.

For those who think organic wines with NSA may not be as yummy as conventional wines...they taste the same, if not better. I opened a bottle of red wine over the weekend and it was delish!!!


Good day!!!

Peter -

I definitely understand what you are saying about many people not being allergic to sulfites. I don't agree that people who are sensitive should simply avoid all wines completely

I have several friends who are sensitive to sulfites. They have problems with sulfite rich food. They can have a wine from the same winery, one made with sulfites and one without, and they have far less problems with the sulfite-free wine. Sure there are a few natural sulfites in the "sulfite-free" wine but they love the wine and enjoy it anyway.

It's like me and cats. I have 2 cats. I am allergic to cats! If they nuzzle on my chest for an hour my face gets red and hot. So I simply shower after I play with them. I would never listen if someone said to me "you are allergic to cats - so therefore never have cats"

Kysongbird - I definitely agree with you about drink-quick wines. They can make the same wine with or without added sulfites and if they have a clean winery operation the wine can be just as delicious in the end.

So if you drink drink-quick wines you're all set!

However, most winemakers feel a wine won't last 4 or 5 years unless it has some sulfites added to it. So if you enjoy the flavor of an aged wine, then you are sort of stuck with sulfites. Just like if you want to eat a meat that hasn't freshly been killed, then you have to preserve or freeze it to keep it fresh. Otherwise it will spoil.

So it's one of those tradeoffs.

I agree completely with you on the general theory of "as few preservatives as possible". For example many studies have been done about the harm of preservatives in luncheon meat. So I try to stay away from hot dogs and other luncheon meats that have preservatives. I love fresh tuna, fresh steak. So I will eat meat - but I try to eat non-preservative-filled meat.

Eating lamb with their cute little eyes is another matter

OK so here's a general question then.

If a wine is definitely meant to be drink soon - say a white zinfandel - why would you WANT to add sulfites to it? It isn't supposed to be on the shelves for years. If the winery has a clean process, and can do it without sulfites, why add sulfites?

This is sort of the "why is there corn syrup in ketchup" argument to me. So much of our food has junk in it in modern times just because it's easier. It makes it hard to find just normal ketchup or maple syrup any more!

I would rather have a wine without preservatives.

Hi this is my first post, looking forward to being part of the wine intro group. Now about sulphites. I was surprised about the high values given in previous posts. We have a winery here in Portugal making red wines. Our sulphite levels into the bottle are not more than 30 mg/litre (30 ppm). this will reduce in time to about 25- 27 mg/L in the bottle which is still enough for conservation. Red wines should not have more than 35mg/litre at bottling Whites may have to have double this to combat refermentation due to more residual sugar, Usually you can smell sulphites at more than 50mg/L in reds and the wine gets a tinny flavour
The sulphites are added after the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations to prevent bacterial and yeast activity during the time the wine matures (up to two years in stainless steel vats or partly in oak barrels), not really for keeping for the few months on the shelf of the winery store.
We have soem wine here "Jaen" (Mencia) which has very low sulphites in the bottle ( under 20mg/L) and low acidity but it is still very OK. Most is already sold so I am happy about that. I do not think it will keep another year, in fact we did not think it would keep until now. It won an award at the Prowein 2009 for wines from temperate climates with low alc 85 Parker points! we were very surprised, but also happy. sorry this is not a plug, the wine has all been sold or drunk!
I would not think that sulphite levels of under 30ppm will cause allergic reations but i am not sure about this, dried fruit has much more.

All the best

Chris Price
Vinhos Cortém

I don't know what is meant by 'sensitive to sulfites' to sulfites, and I don't know how your friends know that they are.

But if someone has a bad reaction to sulphites then they should avoid wines because all wines contain sulphites and always have.

Welcome, Chris, to the discussion.

As you say, sulphites have been used since time immemorial as a sterilizer in winemaking to clean barrels and kill bacteria.

As a commercial wine maker I thought I would put my 2 cents in. Sulfites are part of the fermentation process. If no additional sulfites are added, the ppm will be 10 to 30 ppm. Organic or Natural Wines contain sulfites. Only wine with a certification from the BATF, after extensive testing, may state on the bottle "Contains no Sulfites". We add sulfites to preserve the wine during filtering and bottling. Sulfites are regulated by the BATF (TTB) to less then 300ppm in wine. The average salad bar contains more than 2 times that amount.

Most small wine makers make every effort to be under 100ppm, so the wine maintains it's natural taste.

If you are concerned about sulfites in your wine. Buy local, get to know your winery, and don't buy mass produced cheap wine.

Thanks for an informative post.

I've heard from another winemaker that all that is proved by a test that shows a wine contains no sulfites is that the test is not sensitive enough to find the sulfites.

I also heard that testing is on an 'honour' basis and that the BATF doesn't check for themselves

Peter

No laboratory test can ever definitively guarantee the 100% absence of any compound. All equipment, all tests, all procedures have limits of accuracy. A definition of what is meant by a phrase 'does not contain any x' is always required that takes into account the technological limits of the tests employed. It might mean 'below 5 parts per million' or 'below 2 parts per trillion' or whatever, but it can never be '100% absolutely zero'.

Australian law requires that wine containing added sulfites MUST be so labeled (preservative 220). Many other countries do not have this rule. I don't believe France does, for example. This means that unless a bottle is Australian (or you know of a similar rule in the country of origin), in the absence of information to the contrary, you must assume that it does contain added sulfites. For the simple reason that almost all wines from all countries do.

This brings up another point. While it is true that almost all wines contain added sulfites, I think WineIntro.com's assertion that wines without added sulfites are extremely short term propositions is very simplistic and in many cases simply wrong. My experience, and I believe the experience of dozens of wine makers in Australia is that this is just not true.

Two examples that I have personal experience with are Jasper Hill Emily's Paddock Shiraz / Cabernet Franc, easily one of the top 5 wines from Australia, and its sister Georgia's Paddock Shiraz which is certainly in the top 25 wines from Australia. I have purchased a case or so of these wines every year for over 20 years.

Jasper Hill is not only a strong advocate of bio-dynamics but as far as I can tell none of their wines contain added sulfites. They do not bear the Australian preservative 220 notice and this means they would be operating illegally if they did. Now I don't claim to know how Ron Laughton at Jasper Hill avoids the spoilage for which other wine makers add sulfites. But I do know that I am currently working my way through my 1997 Emily's, and I assure you they are in magnificent shape and drinking beautifully after 12 years.

France does. EU introduced the sulphites added rule wef Nov 2006. Now many EU wines have this nonsensical message in 10 languages, plus the equally nonsensical pregant woman sign. And more warnings are to come...

As always, what is on the label depends on the requiremnts of the country the wine is sold in.

OK, that's good (except for the 10 languages part of course).

I don't think that declaring additives is nonsensical, even if sulfites are trivial, but I do agree about the pregnant woman warning sign. Or the 'Contents are hot' warning labels on take-away coffee cups, or ...

... or may contain nuts on a packet of peanuts

That's very interesting, that wineries are making long-aging wines without any sulfites at all. There are many medical doctors out here in New England who have made this issue their obsession. They deliberately do not use sulfites - but they also adamantly insist that a wine without sulfites added to it cannot reliably age without danger of degradation. They say that there is no winemaking technology currently out there that can guarantee that survival. They are coming at it from a biological / medical point of view.

It sounds like I should interview the winemakers at Jasper Hill ...

sulphites occur naturally in the wine no?

Yes, at a low level. So in essence one part of the discussion hinges on whether people who are sensitive to sulfites should be sensitive to that natural occurring amount, or whether there is a middle ground where they are fine with the natural occurring sulfites but have a reaction when you add a lot more into the mix.

Funny thing ... turns out my wife is allergic to sulfonamides. Her doctor recently suggested she stay away from red wines, but that white wines may be ok.

I wonder, is that because red wines are better with aging, and the sulfur aids in the aging process ... where as white wines are not aged as routinely, and therefore will likey have less sulfur?

Definitely I do think that winemakers take into account how long the wine will be aging when they figure out how many sulfites to add into a given wine.

I also have a sense (although I'm not positive) that the natural sulfites are found on the grape skins. White wines are made without much skin contact at all. Red wines are made by soaking the skins. So that could also be a factor.