Natural Products Expo West 2006 - Can Organic Wine Have Sulfites?
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 04.13.06
[This is part 4 of a series of guest posts by Siel from Green LA Girl. For more, see part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 & part 6. -Ed.] There's certified organic wine, and wine made with certified organic grapes. The difference? The latter contains added sulfites, the former does not. Adding sulfites, a preservative, automatically makes a wine ineligible for organic certification.
Why add sulfites? Sulfites have long been used as a preservative in wine. Many winemakers say that it's difficult to near impossible to bring out the flavours derived through aging that people are used to getting in their wines. Some will go so far as to say sulfite-free wines suck.
Of course, others, such as Frey Vineyards, an organic, biodynamic, no sulfites added winery in Mendocino, claim that too much sulfites can have the effect of "masking delicate flavors, assaulting the nose." Both Frey and La Rocca Vineyards, another no sulfites added winery, were pouring generous drinks at the organic and wine tasting at the Natural Products Expo West.
Is sulfite-free wine yummier or less yummy than "regular" wine? Most of us just don't have a palate refined enough to make that sort of blanket statement. Scientific research seems to show that, except for people with sulfite sensitivities, the amount of sulfites added to wines is not going to have any detrimental effects. After all, sulfites are naturally occuring -- Even no-sulfites-added wine often contain a little bit of natural sulfites.
Most of the wines representin' at the Expo were made with organic grapes, but added sulfites. Some of these were Casa Barranca, Coturri Winery, Girasole Vineyards, Hallcrest Vineyards, Nevada County Wine Guild (pictured) and organic wines imported by Organic Vintners from all over the world.
All we know is, all the wines tasted pretty good to us. Of course, everyone was pouring rather generous servings, and after a long day of walking all over the expo, we gulped more than sipped...
And you can learn more about organic and biodynamic wines on Treehugger TV!
[A hundred "thanks" to Siel from Green LA Girl!]
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Lots of misinformation floating around about this topic: and plenty of marketing spin as well. Lets go back to basics. Modern inorganic chemistry began mid-1800's with advent of periodic table. The actual substance added is sodium meta-bisulfite, a synthetic compound. Sulfites can take many forms and an analysis for "total sufites and sulfates" will capture meta-bisulfites and sulfates that are formed when sulfites combine with oxygen. To some extent sulfur compounds will be present in the soils and small amounts will be taken up into fruit. However, the original source of the sulfur may be elemental sulfur used as an "organic" pesticide. The amount of sulfites needed to create an anaerobic fermentation environment (and retard native yeasts as well as prevent oxidation of aromatic compounds wanted for flavors) is around 2 to 10 parts per million range. There is no way that that level is naturally present in the grape mast and juice. It is added. Having said all that, lets keep in mind that the tradition of excellent reds existed prior to the mid 1800's. Remember the Last Supper? This is all about optimizing production and minimizing product loss to keep profits high. All other claims to the contrary are bogus.
I have a sulfite intolerance so drink sulfite free and organic wines. They certainly don't suck, and I avoid all that nastiness that goes with sulfites and sulfates for me - headaches, stuffy nose, extreme allergic reactions...
My husband loves wine but has allergies to sulfites. Wine, dried fruit (like apple slices and apricots), anything with sulfites wrecks him for days (or garlic powder for that matter, which is in almost every product made in the USA scan grocery store labels if you don't believe me). I've found a few organic wines that were sulfite free but there are very few out there. I certainly would like to see more.
Holly
So perhaps some more information then? I thought I understood that sulfites were added to full bodied reds to allow them to age for over 5 years. Whites, which generally do not contain as much sulfites, are generally recomended to be consumed in less than five years as they cannot age that long without starting to spoil.
Also the earlier comment stated that sulfites are a relatively recent addition to winemaking (150 years or so), but I understand that the romans were additing sulfur to their wine long before. And I think even the Dutch would refuse to ship wine that didn't have added sulfites. So I think the question is, in the past did winemakers produce wine that were able to be aged for over 5 years without sulfites?
In addition to not being able to age sulfite free wine, you would also need to refrigerate the wine I believe?
Anyway... I'd be curious if anyone knows how wine can be aged without added sulfites and if those processes are still acceptable to the modern pallate.
I am extremely allergic to sulfites. Severe headaches result..many of my patients suffer a variety of effects.My solution is to avoid like the plague..I do drink Frey red table wine and find it very good. The name organic suggests purity in most peoples mind, so to add sulfites is, in my opinion, just plain wrong. Does spin make truth? Sometimes it just makes muddy water. Maybe thats the point......Love Treehugger...thanks for your existance!!!
Not sure I can get on board with that last statement. Organic = Purity. I can assure that if you just grew grapes, allowed them to ferment naturally, and bottled them you'd never get near the stuff. Nothing about Wine making can really be considered that natural. As for natural (just grapes) then you discount all kinds of addiditives that have been used for years to clarify, perserve, and flavor the wine. I'm not saying that sulfites should or shouldn't be included, I just think it's silly to exclude them just because they are generally added in a synthetic form. It's quite possible to select different yeast that produce greater amounts of sulfites during fermentation naturally, in which case you'd theoretically end up with the same composition but one could be considered organic and the other not. That to me doesn't really stick to the purity of the organic theme. I'd prefer focus to stay on things like removing pesticides.
Couple of additional points. FDA not too many years ago banned the spraying of meta-bisulfite solutions on salad bars and cut fruit bowls in restaurants and cafeterias due the allergic and other sensitivities that came to their attention through public complaint. Until political forces were put in play the standard line was that "there was no scientific proof" of harm. Right. So if it is NOT alright to put it on salad why is still OK to put it in wine. Perhaps a better question is: why are there not specific not to exceed concentration limits for sulfites in wine?
I have a hunch that great red wine was being bottled and aged for many years back in the Middle Ages, but that the spoilage rate was relatively high. Perhaps someone knows about this?
The post bottling preservative function of sulfites is often overlooked. I suspect this is more significant to the wine industry than processing efficiency per se.(but will stand corrected). Meta-bisulfite serves as an oxygen scavenger, tying up any before it can "brown" the white wine or support aerobic bacterial decomposition of fragrant molecules. You can test it yourself by overwhelming the sulfite oxygen scavenging function. Put in two drops of ordinary dilute hydrogen peroxide per liter of open wine. Within a day or two the wine will be noticeably brown and the taste will become slowly flatter, less aromatic. There are ways around this such as drinking the bottle once opened!
I believe the issue on salad bars was percieved slightly different because of the difference between the disolved and gasseous state sulfites. In salad bars, the theory was that the sulfite solution was coming into contact with vinegar (salad dressing) and vaporizing. This gas then was inhalled and significantly more hazerdous to those that might have an allergy or asmatic reaction. The medical risk are apparently much different with the disolved solution.
However this is not my area of expertise.
Also with regards to the middle ages comment, I think it was common even before the middle ages to treat the barrels before aging the wine with various natural sulfites. I'm not sure how far one must go back to discover how wine was aged before their use.
Sulfite-free wines are a fluke and a rarity. Some of you are sulfite-sensitive, not just in wines but in other things as well, so clearly have a real need to seek out the No Sulfites Added wines. A lot of people mistakenly blame sulfites for the wine headache though, and that probably wasn't the problem.
Sweet white wines have the most sulfites added. Reds have the least because their tannin acts as a preservative itself - they don't need as much help.
The author of this article is mistaken about Coturri Winery - they do not add sulfites or any other preservatives or chemicals to their wines - "Just Grapes" is their motto. Check out the website www.coturriwinery.com
Coturri Winery is Sulfite free though it is listed here as organic plus added sulfites.
i agree coturri winery is sulfite free wine i also research about it. and its never sulfite in it
yes organic wines also have sulfites which give you allergy and headache
yes Organic Wine Have Sulfites which give you headace and allergy
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Have a glass of water instead. No sulfites.