Chew On This / August 2009
Wine Education
To Sulfite or Not to Sulfite?
by The ConsciousWine Guy
One of the biggest questions I hear is, does the wine contain sulfites? Sulfites are used in wine for lots of things. Elemental sulfur (which is an organic compound) is used in the vineyards to prevent powdery mildew.
Sulfur dioxide is used at several spots.
- To clean barrels.
- When the grapes come in for crush; they are often sprayed with SO2 to kill any yeast on the grapes, followed by the winery adding a cultured yeast to facilitate a controlled fermentation.
- To keep bacteria and oxidation under control while the wine goes thru its various stages.
- At bottling, to prevent oxidation and any bacteria from going wild, possibly creating a bacterial universe in the bottle.
At ConsciousWine we support wineries that eliminate a lot, but not all sulfur. 
We feel that SO2 needs to be added in small amounts to control bacteria and oxidation at bottling, therefore supporting the healthy longevity and development of the wine in the bottle.
There’s a dominant consumer belief that sulfites cause headaches. What if a sulfite reaction was like cotton stuck in the throat, not a headache?
SO2 is used in many dried fruits, packaged meats, condiments & salad dressings, plus lots of things in the supermarket that unnaturally hold their color. Those products use way larger amounts than what’s used in wine. Legal maximum for wine is 350 parts per million and conscious wineries are mostly under 100 parts per million (less for reds than for whites). If you consume any of those foods and you don’t get headaches, could the sulfites in wine be causing you headaches?
What if headaches in wine come from:
- A dehydrated person drinking a dehydrating beverage?
- Alcohol being absorbed thru the stomach lining and immediately turning into sugar, which is acidic, and therefore supporting whatever there’s too much of in your system getting amped up further?
- Histamines?
- The subtle shift from naturalness that happens to a wine when it’s fermented with yeasts other than what’s from that particular vineyard and winery?
- Drinking wines where fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or insecticides are used in the vineyards?
What if?
REMINDER: all wineries on the ConsciousWine List™ use zero synthetics in the vineyards! Several chemical compounds that are often used in organic and biodynamic farming are not synthetic. They include Stylet Oil and Elemental Sulfur. For a full list of products approved for those farming organically, The XXXX is a great resource.
All wine, even ones with no sulfites added, can contain six to eight parts per million. That much occurs naturally without adding anything.
To sulfite, or not to sulfite?
I tend to think "yes." A little bit. Controlled and minimal, but added before bottling to keep the wine stable and vital.
Read this pdf from Biodynamically-farmed Benziger Family Winery on sulfur.
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