Wine 101: Sulfite Sensitivity

Wednesdays on the BottleBlog will feature an education session on wine, beer or spirits. Today, Shannon Spare continues her wine education.

This weekend at my daughter's first birthday party, a friend that I hadn't seen in a while was asking about my job. He mentioned that he rarely drinks wine anymore because of a sulfite sensitivity, and it's very difficult for him to find wines he can drink without suffering adverse effects.

Sulfite sensitivity is fairly common - 1 in 100 people suffer from it, and that rate happens to be much higher in asthmatics. Sulfite sensitivity can develop at any age. If you notice symptoms like a headache, runny nose, sneezing, or trouble breathing after you've had red wine, you will want to take a trip to the doctor to have the diagnosis confirmed.

Sulfites have been added to wine for as long as wine has been made - Greeks and Romans used sulphur to sterilize their wine barrels and prevent oxygen from causing too much damage to the wine, too quickly. Sulfites also prevent harmful bacteria from growing, so that the wines last longer and have time to age and develop the correct flavors.

Unfortunately, sulfites are a also naturally-occurring compound in a lot of the foods we eat, including grapes, so while no wines can ever be 100% truly sulfite-free, there are a number of wines that have no detectable sulfates. (And Joe Canal's carries a selection of them!) According to the law, wine bottles must be labeled if the sulfite content is over 10 parts per million. Many people with sulfite sensitivities have them mildly and can tolerate the very small amount of sulfites that are in the wine naturally - from grapes. The wineries produce these wines using special sterile techniques and a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen to help guard against rapid oxidation. The downfall of sulfite-free wines is that, by nature, they can't last as long as wines with sulfites. However, for sulfite-sensitive individuals, it's a great treat to be able to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner now and again.