Sulphites... Sickly or Super?

Something I hear a lot of is “Oh but wine is full of chemicals now it’s all made in factories these days” Or “Sulphites give me a bad headache!”

Lets clear something up – Sulphites, or sulphur dioxide to give it it’s full name, has always been present in wine, from the day somebody thought “those rotting grapes smelled kind of interesting” to Kate and Wills Toasting with English Fizz at their wedding party.

Sulphites occur naturally during fermentation, it is to fermenting grape juice what penicillin is to people, it clears up all sorts of bugs, viruses and other nasties which might render the wine useless or even worse – undrinkable. Without it our beloved wine would turn simply into vinegar, and we can’t have that happen now can we?  

Only a small handful of Organic wines have sulphite levels so low it doesn’t require the statement on the label however these are incredibly rare. But In the US, EU and parts of Asia it is compulsory that a wine states it has sulphites – this is because sulphites can cause an allergic reaction in up to 5% of Asthma sufferers. This same average level of 30 to 150 parts per million, (yes, million) is also present in dried apricots, so why does wine get such a bad rap?

The truth is most people would rather blame their headache the following day on an ingredient in the wine rather than drinking on an empty stomach, being too dehydrated to start with, or simply drinking too much.

Apart from the appearance of big factory-like buildings producing wine these days, the fact is it is simpler than ever before, we have the technology and the know-how now to keep wineries as clean as possible – so in contrast to what some people may think about the “good old days” - Wine in the bottle has now been tampered with far less and contains much less sulphur dioxide than ever before, and that’s a good thing.

So the next time your friend tells you “It’s those sulphites in wine these days” give them a glass of water and tell them to go lie down. And obviously email them a link to this page...