Sulfites ~ Nothing to Sneeze At

"Do your wines contain sulfites? My friend is very allergic and she'll go into shock if she drinks wine containing sulfites."

That’s enough to scare me silly. All I need is to have a gasping, cyanotic customer on the floor. "Well, uh," I stammer, "then perhaps she'd better not have any, just in case." And I pull the glass back.

He hangs on to the glass. "So your wines do have sulfites, then?"

Sulfites, I explain, are a natural fruit by-product, actually found on the dusty skin of grapes before they are washed. Winemakers are allowed to use sulfur dioxide as a natural disinfectant and preservative. Sulfites are a natural by-product of the fermentation process and a necessary ingredient if wine is to age properly because they retard oxidation and microbial growth.

Many people believe it's the sulfites that give them headaches when they drink red wine. Although this may in some cases be true, it could be the tannin content which creates a histamine reaction. Tannin, an aldehydic substance naturally found in grape skins and seeds, is also a natural preservative, and is found in greater quantity in red wine. (Remember Boris Karloff as "The Mummy," craving his daily dose of tanna leaves?)

Red wines are macerated and fermented "on their skins" to extract color, flavor and tannin from the pigment-rich skins. As wines age, the tannin molecules connect in long strings, a sort of decomposition in the bottle. Therefore, we wine geeks say the tannins are "softer," or "earthy" in an older wine. Young wines with fresh tannins can taste very astringent. Compare it to eating a whole bunch of red table grapes. In spite of the wonderful juice inside, grape skins and seeds will leave a dry, abraded feeling on your tongue. People who are sensitive to products like nuts, tea leaves and cinnamon bark will often be sensitive to the woody taste of tannin as well.

Sulfites got their bad name not from wine but from salad bars, where sulfite-laden water was used to keep cut-up greens from turning brown. Some of the overdosed vegetables were found to contain as much as 2,000 ppm, and people who were hyperallergic to the chemical went into shock after eating them.

Other products which have been documented as having high sulfite contents include canned pineapple, fresh tomatoes and potatoes, tomato juice and some frozen juices.

Consumer protection groups lobbied for laws banning the use of sulfites in salad bars and for warning labels on products containing more than 10 ppm, a level that often occurs naturally during fermentation. The legal limit for wine is 250 ppm; most winemakers add much less—about 80 ppm.

Sulfur dioxide is very safe and easy to use. It's very effective, and is used in very low quantities. Bottled wines will generally have no more than 50 ppm of free sulfur dioxide, which equates to 50 milligrams per liter.

Sulfur dioxide smells like burnt matchheads, and may elicit a sneeze or a slight burning sensation in the nose. Many people are sensitive to sulfur dioxide, and their reactions may range from a tingling nose to nausea when drinking wine with higher sulfite contents. Allergic individuals are those with hypersensitive reactions, usually asthma.

According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, wine drinkers may ingest up to 10 mg. of sulfites a day, while people who eat in restaurants, and who enjoy foods like fresh salads, potatoes, shrimp, or avocado dip, typically ingest from 25 to 100 mg. of sulfites during one meal.

My taster grabs his girlfriend's glass and pulls it back. "Then she can taste wine with sulfites?"

I keep my hold on the glass and tug it back toward me, a dozen rude questions scrambling through my head. "Has she tasted wine before? And lived? Does wine give her headaches or send her to the hospital? If she's sure she's allergic to sulfites, why did you bring her winetasting?"

Of course, some people are genuinely hypersensitive or allergic to sulfur dioxide and should avoid it in any form.

But odds are, if you can eat canned pineapple, you can drink wine.

Comments

[wine]

Great info. on Sulfites, glad I'm not one who suffers from them. There is a big misconception about them though and lots of people don't understand why they get sick from sulfites. Great info. Thanks

[Kellie D'Onofrio]

Thank you for the information. My sister and mother love red wine but it does give them headaches at times. I'm passing this article along to them.