Having the “Sulfite Talk”

 By Kaitlin Ohlinger

I need you to know how much I hate it.

The talk. Not the sulfites. 

Friends. I have gathered you here today to have a very frank (one-sided) conversation with you about: SULFITES. And why it is one of the more dreaded conversations that we wine professionals have with you, our potential customer. We love you. We value you. But we can’t keep having this conversation.

Alright, alright. Some of you are already squawking at me: “I really AM allergic to sulfites!” So allow me to make an initial distinction; there IS such a thing as a sulfite allergy. There are people that are allergic to sulfites. Are you really one of them? That’s for you know! An allergist may prove helpful if you suspect such an allergy. But if you get a headache after drinking wine and blame sulfites? Guess what? You’re probably not.

But let’s back up for just a second. What exactly IS a sulfite? Sulfites are a chemical compound (SO2). Sulfites are added to wine during winemaking (actually, they are also naturally-occurring, in small amounts), and have been since roughly forever. That may be a slight overstatement, but legend holds that Dutch and English wine traders use to regularly burn sulfur candles in their wine barrels before filling them with wine. Why would they do this? What do sulfites do? Sulfites are a preservative. They have a very crucial function. Most valuable for you to remember is that they serve as an antimicrobial and an antioxidant. Those are fancy words for preventing the development of unwanted bacteria and yeasts; and protecting the fruit’s integrity, life of the wine, and unwanted browning or discoloration. Do you want a wine that tastes great if you forget it on the back of your wine shelf for 6 months? Or do so intentionally? I’d be willing to bet that’s a yes. You can thank sulfites for that!

A fun fact to interject here is that sulfites are added to other things in much, much larger quantities than they are in wine. The best example is dried fruit. That handful of dried cranberries you had last week definitely had WAY more sulfites than any glass (or bottle) of wine you had recently. If you were allergic to sulfites and you ate dried cranberries, you could enjoy an array of symptoms including hives, itching, rashes, nausea and even difficulty breathing. Those are the people that, unfortunately, probably have to stay away from wine as well as dried fruit. My heart hurts for those people.

What other types of misinformation about sulfites are out there? The number one trend that I see is the “Sulfites are bad or unnatural” theory.While I would never argue with a winemaker who makes the decision not to add any additional SO2 (that’s his or her prerogative), the bad/unnatural idea is very troublesome. Wine and winemaking are traditions that have included sulfites for centuries, in one form or another. To label a wine that has no added sulfites as more “natural” than one that does, to me, reeks of hypocrisy. They are necessary. They’re part of the process. And they’re not what gave you that headache. Furthermore, the US is one of the only countries that actually require the “contains sulfites” label. I have a vague feeling that there is many a European winemaker having a good laugh at our fixation with sulfites. Remember the age old, “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” Well, what came first? The “contains sulfites” label OR our “issues” with sulfites? An interesting point to ponder.

What, in fact, DID give you that headache? Sadly, there is not one good answer. I usually take a common sense approach. Alcohol in any form will dehydrate you. Dehydration causes headaches. How your body reacts to the wine you drink has many factors. What did you eat that day? How much water did you drink? Did you exercise? Get enough sleep? These are all more logical, individual factors that, in my opinion, are things to look at if you’re trying to dissect why you got that god-awful headache. But please don’t blame the sulfites. They’re just a couple of atoms, out there in the world, making wine better.

You know what gives US a headache? Your trusted wine professionals? Talking about sulfites. Fortunately, we tend to cure ours WITH wine.