A friend of mine has a real dilemma. She loves wine, but every
time she takes a sip, she soon begins gasping for breath.
Some people, like my friend, have severe allergic reactions to
chemical compounds containing sulfur.
A friend of mine has a real dilemma. She loves wine, but every time she takes a sip, she soon begins gasping for breath.
Some people, like my friend, have severe allergic reactions to chemical compounds containing sulfur. Theses compounds are called sulfites, and they are used as a preservative in many foods and beverages, including wine. Ailments that have been blamed on sulfites include asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, headache, heart arrhythmia, hives, irritable bowel syndrome, rosacea and swelling of various parts of the body. The most common complaints are headache and asthma.
So how do sulfites get into wine in the first place? Some are added, but some are unavoidable. According to Wells Shoemaker, M.D. of Aptos – a practicing physician and respected wine maker – grapes themselves don’t contain sulfites, but they are a natural result of fermentation. “All fermentation processes, including those used in making bread and wine, produce sulfites as a by-product,” Dr. Shoemaker says. Some growers spray sulfites on the vines during the growing season to control various fungi. Even some “organically grown” wine grapes may be so treated, as sulfite compounds are allowed under the regulations that govern organic farming.
Almost all wine makers also add sulfites to finished wines as a way of preserving them for transportation and aging. Indeed, wine makers have been using sulfites for thousands of years. They protect wine from damage by oxygen and prevent organisms from forming. Without some form of preservative, wine – red wines in particular – would never last long enough to age and fully develop their flavors. As
a rule, white wines contain more sulfites than do reds.
Some makers, including Dr. Shoemaker, try to minimize the use of sulfites. “I don’t like working with the chemicals,” he says. So, several techniques are used to diminish the need for these chemicals. Harvesting grapes when they are cold minimizes the chance for microorganisms to grow in them. Also, choosing grapes with a high level of acidity helps to put the kibosh on the organisms.
The trick is to prevent contamination from occurring. So some winemakers use a layer of carbon dioxide on the wine to starve the organisms of oxygen, and they use nitrogen during bottling for the same reason. Sterile filtering is also a key step in keeping microbes out of the wine.
The health risks of sulfites came to the public’s attention in the 1980s, when salad bars became all the rage. Restaurateurs were spraying their lettuce and other veggies with a solution that kept them from turning brown. And that solution contained sulfites.
Dr. Shoemaker says that the solution was not always properly applied and tended to concentrate in the folds of lettuce. When salad dressing containing vinegar is added to the sulfite mixture, it creates sulfur dioxide gas. This gas will cause breathing problems in anyone, regardless of allergies. So the use of sulfites on salad bars was banned by the FDA in 1986.
Several wineries are making wines with no added sulfites, but bear in mind that the best they can do is reduce the amount in the finished product, not eliminate it altogether. Some brands to watch for include Organic Wine Works, a label produced by Hallcrest Vineyards of Felton and several varietals from Amity Vineyards in Amity, Ore.
The consensus is that if you have bad reactions to sulfites in wine, there’s not much you can do about it except avoid the beverage. In fact, the chemical is pretty difficult to steer clear of in general. The Mayo Clinic lists the following foods as commonly containing sulfites: Cookies, crackers, pie and pizza crusts, flour tortillas, bakery products containing dried fruits or vegetables, beer, cocktail mixes, beverage mixes, canned clams, dried cod; fresh, frozen, canned and dried shrimp; frozen lobster; scallops; processed fruit including canned, bottled, or frozen fruit; dried fruit; maraschino cherries, glazed fruit, precut potatoes, condiments and relishes (horseradish, onion and pickle relish, pickles, olives, salad dressing mixes, wine vinegar); guacamole dip, confections and frostings containing
brown, raw, powdered or white sugar derived from sugar beets and wine and wine coolers.
Now that will shorten your grocery list.
