It Wasn't the Sulfites

Organic wine usually has sulfites, but avoiding sulfites isn't the reason to drink it anyway.

It’s happened to you, hasn’t it? A night of good cabernet (well, maybe not so good, but red anyway,) and you wake up the next morning with a headache. And you think: darn those sulfites! That’s what I get for drinking that red wine! Well…it may have been the red wine. But it probably wasn’t the sulfites.

Sulfites are sulfur dioxide – sulfur and oxygen. Both, of course, occur commonly in nature, and our own bodies produce about a gram of sulfites a day. It’s commonly used as a preservative in any number of things. Dried fruit has plenty of sulfites. It’s added to salad bar items, to keep them fresh. And if you’re out for a nice restaurant meal, you’ll probably get more sulfites from your food than from your wine.

Sulfites, which are normally measured in parts per million or “ppm,” occur naturally in winemaking, from yeasts that form during fermentation. Most of the sulfite molecule binds with other substances in the wine. Once “bound,” it can’t be tasted or smelled. The rest of the molecule, the “free” sulfite, is left to bond with air or other substances that could spoil the wine. So it’s the free sulfites that have the preservative qualities, that either kill harmful organisms outright or prevent them from reproducing. Sulfites keep wine from oxidizing and prevent the growth of bacteria, molds, and yeasts that would turn it to vinegar. So while almost all wine has naturally-occurring sulfites, winemakers generally add more to keep the grape juice from going bad.

Sulfites aren’t the only natural preservative in wine. Tannin, found in grape skins, does the same thing. Since red wine is fermented with the skins, it has more tannin, and needs less sulfites. You’ll find the highest sulfite levels in sweet dessert wines, because they need it most. Drier wines have less.

United States law requires that all wines with sulfite levels of more than 10ppm be labeled “Contains Sulfites.” Since sulfites occur naturally, that includes almost all wine. It doesn’t necessarily mean that sulfites were added. The legal limit in the US is 350ppm, with most weighing in between 25 and 150. European wines average around 80ppm.

Organic wines must have less than 100ppm, and most have less than 40. While organic winemakers are more likely to restrict the use of added sulfites, it’s just as possible to have a sulfite-free wine that’s made from conventionally grown grapes as from organic ones.

Do sulfites have any negative effects on wine? Some winemakers find that they affect the color, clarity, and taste of their wines, and you may find the lower sulfite wines more to your liking as well.

Do they have any negative effects on people? Those are limited to a very small part of the population. You’re a bit more likely to feel those effects if you’re asthmatic. The Food and Drug Administration tells us that about 0.4% of the population is highly allergic to sulfites. More may be sulfite-sensitive.

If you’re having reactions to wine, try a few dried apricots. If you don’t react to them, it may be something else – the specific grape, the trees growing near the vineyard, the oak the wine was aged in – but it’s not the sulfites.