DAVID PERRY

Irregular Thoughts

The sermon I preach to customers who insist that sulphites in wine are evil

Ishould perhaps start by stating that the following has not been very carefully researched and more citations may be required. This is my perceived wisdom, though, and is what I preach to customers.

In a nutshell: sulphites are a good thing. They occur naturally in many things, including the human body, and have antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Less than 2% of the population have sulphite sensitivity causing asthma-like symptoms. Not many people die. They don’t give you a headache – it’s the alcohol that does that.

The demonising of sulphites appears, like many things, to have started in the USA where restaurants liberally sprinkled sulphur compounds on salad bars to keep vegetables green and crispy. After a few incidents of anaphylaxis, controls were implemented.

Someone once said something along the lines of “making wine is a battle of fermenting grape juice while avoiding oxidation”. As soon as the grape skin is broken, the air starts trying to destroy the juice. Something to do with entropy and thermodynamics, probably. It’s a very long time since my science degree.

At some point every week someone will ask if we have any no- or low-sulphur wine. If they stay long enough, my reply goes along these lines.

Removing sulphur from wine is an unnecessary process. Sulphites occur naturally on the bloom on a grape skin, so even if you manage to avoid oxidation some other way during pressing and bottling, it’ll be there. “No sulphur” is about 10mg/litre.

I point to the Greco di Tufo from Vesuvio. What do you think the soil is like here?

The maximum allowed is 150mg/litre. The average for a small grower-producer is likely to be closer to 40mg/litre. That is way lower than in prepared salads, dried fruit, burgers and sausages (450mg/kg), none of which appear to give anyone a problem. I’m sure I read somewhere that at 150mg/litre two glasses of wine would keep you below the limit for a sulphite reaction. On that basis you could have almost eight glasses at a time of a well-made wine, although you would then be well over the government alcohol intake guidelines, so your doctor would still pull a face.

Organic wine (or, rather, wine made from organically grown grapes) is not much different. The problem with organic farming is that you have to use copper sulphate to control mildew. You can’t use the synthetic treatments that biodegrade, don’t build up in the soil and don’t kill earthworms.

“Organic wine” can have up to 100mg/litre and may well contain more sulphites than a well-made non-organic wine.

Recently a customer asked for organic wine as she had asthma and her doctor had told her to drink organic wine. You would hope that her doctor was well versed in medicine, but just what the hell does he know about wine? You wouldn’t expect a wine merchant to offer an opinion on that nasty rash.

The one that really gets me is, “ever since they started using sulphites …” What? Since Roman times, when they used sulphur candles to disinfect their amphorae? Or do you mean since 2011 (2005 regulation) when any of a dozen or so notifiable allergens had to be shown on the label? Thank goodness wine is not included in food labelling laws – or maybe that would be a good thing. Our wines may have a line or two. Mass-produced wine would have to have a fold-out label: “May contain traces of potassium ferrocyanide.”

Contrary to my belief, there is no evidence that wine made from grapes ripped from vast prairie-like vineyards and pumped into tankers to be taken to processing plants contain more sulphites. Damn!

Not many customers stay for the whole sermon. Maybe I should stock one or two no- or low-sulphur wines just to save time. Well, we have looked at some, but they have been universally awful. One Pinot Noir had disclaimers all over the label basically explaining that it didn’t taste like Pinot Noir. The first glass was not impressive but just about drinkable. The second was worse. By the third glass it was undrinkable. The rest went down the sink.

On another occasion I was offered a taste of an “experimental” no-sulphur wine. A work in progress with a lot more work to go. It was undrinkable, but the most notable thing was the following morning the line of unwashed glasses included one that was now furry.

If we do find a no-sulphur wine that is stable and drinkable I might only sell it after being shown a certificate from the 2% club.