About sulfites, headaches, and more...
Feb. 26th, 2009 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ptpgradThis is from an e-web newsletter that was forwarded to me from a friend who is quite the wine connoisseur . If you want to join this mailing list after reading the newsletter article, you can do so by clicking the address below and giving them your email addy:
http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101846722485
The company is www.firstvine.com...if you don't trust the link above, just go to their site.
Greetings!
We had a booth at a large food and wine show a couple of weeks ago, and a lot of people there told us that they don't drink red wines because the sulfites give them a headache. Others told us they were happy we had French wines because French wines don't have sulfites so they could finally drink some reds without getting headaches. No doubt the headaches are real, but both of these things can't be true at once. Wine contains a lot of different compounds, and people can have sensitivities to any of them, so there's no way to know specifically what causes the problem. What we can do is clear up a few misconceptions about sulfites.
Sulfites are chemical compounds containing the element sulfur. While they're added to many foods as a preservative, some sulfites are naturally present in grapes and other foods. They are also created as natural byproducts of fermentation of grape juice to produce wine. Because of this, there is no such thing as a wine that doesn't contain sulfites - depending on the varieties of grapes and the strains of yeast used to make the wine, there will be between 6 and 40 parts per million (ppm) concentration of sulfites in the wine even if the winemaker doesn't use additional sulfites. This is true the world over, no matter where the wine is made, since winemakers don't remove naturally-occurring sulfites from wine. All wine sold in the U.S. must be labeled with the words "contains sulfites" if the wine contains more than 10 ppm of sulfites, including wine labeled as organic. (The organic labeling rules vary by country, but some organic wines labeled as organic can contain up to 100 ppm of sulfites). The U.S. government requires labeling because people with severe asthma can experience adverse reactions to sulfites. Some countries don't require sulfite labeling, which may have led people to believe that non-American wines they consumed abroad don't contain any sulfites.
Sulfites serve a useful function in wine, by killing or blocking the action of unwanted bacteria and mold that are ever-present in the environment, and which would either interfere with fermentation or create a different product. Sulfur-containing compounds were used to fight infection before the development of modern antibiotics, so it's not surprising that they'd have the same effect in wine.
You might think that the alcohol in wine would kill off any critters, but there are strains of bacteria that convert the alcohol in wine into acetic acid, or vinegar, when exposed to air. It's a tricky business, because the oxygen that is part of the conversion to vinegar also helps some wines to get better with age in the bottle when present in extremely limited amounts. Sulfites slow the vinegar reaction and make it possible to keep wine in the bottle for years. (In fact, most old wines with added sulfites that have "spoiled" aren't vinegary because the sulfites are still at work. What has happened is that too much oxygen has reacted with other components in the wine to give them a smell like sherry. Sulfites help prevent this from happening too.) Wines containing less than 10 ppm sulfites may be prone to spoiling more quickly, and are best consumed a short time after bottling. Keep in mind that most wines aren't bottled until six months after the grape harvest, so there's not much room for error. Scrupulous equipment disinfection to kill the bacteria and bottling the wine under a nitrogen or carbon dioxide "blanket" to eliminate exposure to oxygen can produce a wine that doesn't require added sulfites, but these techniques will add to the cost and may not be entirely effective.
Winemakers typically add more sulfites to white wines than to red wines. The average concentration of sulfites in white wine is 70 ppm, as opposed to 50 for reds -- meaning that people who have some sort of reaction to red wines but not to white wines probably aren't allergic to sulfites. This is especially true if they can eat dried fruit without a reaction, since much of the dried fruit on the market is treated with a lot more sulfites than most wines.
So what causes the red wine reaction? Some people may be sensitive to the tannins in red wine, but chocolate, coffee, and tea also contain tannins - if people can consume them without a problem, then it's not the tannins. There is anecdotal evidence that drinking red wines with food can reduce the symptoms, or that taking an anti-inflammatory before drinking red wine can also help. But truth be told, there hasn't been any real scientific inquiry about red wine reactions, especially compared to the research on health benefits. Like the old joke - a man goes to the doctor and says "My leg hurts when I do this," and the doctor says, "So stop doing it!" - it's easier to avoid the problem than figure out what causes it. We feel for you, and not just because we sell wine: it's sad to think that even one glass of something that gives us such pleasure can send some people to bed clutching their heads in pain. After all, if you're going to be sick from drinking wine, you might as well have enough to enjoy it first!
Luckily, there are some foods that go well with both white and red wines, so everyone can have something good to drink.
(snippage for recipe info on salmon pie and other things in this weeks newsletter)
Bon Appetit!
Dare & Tom
http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101846722485
The company is www.firstvine.com...if you don't trust the link above, just go to their site.
Greetings!
We had a booth at a large food and wine show a couple of weeks ago, and a lot of people there told us that they don't drink red wines because the sulfites give them a headache. Others told us they were happy we had French wines because French wines don't have sulfites so they could finally drink some reds without getting headaches. No doubt the headaches are real, but both of these things can't be true at once. Wine contains a lot of different compounds, and people can have sensitivities to any of them, so there's no way to know specifically what causes the problem. What we can do is clear up a few misconceptions about sulfites.
Sulfites are chemical compounds containing the element sulfur. While they're added to many foods as a preservative, some sulfites are naturally present in grapes and other foods. They are also created as natural byproducts of fermentation of grape juice to produce wine. Because of this, there is no such thing as a wine that doesn't contain sulfites - depending on the varieties of grapes and the strains of yeast used to make the wine, there will be between 6 and 40 parts per million (ppm) concentration of sulfites in the wine even if the winemaker doesn't use additional sulfites. This is true the world over, no matter where the wine is made, since winemakers don't remove naturally-occurring sulfites from wine. All wine sold in the U.S. must be labeled with the words "contains sulfites" if the wine contains more than 10 ppm of sulfites, including wine labeled as organic. (The organic labeling rules vary by country, but some organic wines labeled as organic can contain up to 100 ppm of sulfites). The U.S. government requires labeling because people with severe asthma can experience adverse reactions to sulfites. Some countries don't require sulfite labeling, which may have led people to believe that non-American wines they consumed abroad don't contain any sulfites.
Sulfites serve a useful function in wine, by killing or blocking the action of unwanted bacteria and mold that are ever-present in the environment, and which would either interfere with fermentation or create a different product. Sulfur-containing compounds were used to fight infection before the development of modern antibiotics, so it's not surprising that they'd have the same effect in wine.
You might think that the alcohol in wine would kill off any critters, but there are strains of bacteria that convert the alcohol in wine into acetic acid, or vinegar, when exposed to air. It's a tricky business, because the oxygen that is part of the conversion to vinegar also helps some wines to get better with age in the bottle when present in extremely limited amounts. Sulfites slow the vinegar reaction and make it possible to keep wine in the bottle for years. (In fact, most old wines with added sulfites that have "spoiled" aren't vinegary because the sulfites are still at work. What has happened is that too much oxygen has reacted with other components in the wine to give them a smell like sherry. Sulfites help prevent this from happening too.) Wines containing less than 10 ppm sulfites may be prone to spoiling more quickly, and are best consumed a short time after bottling. Keep in mind that most wines aren't bottled until six months after the grape harvest, so there's not much room for error. Scrupulous equipment disinfection to kill the bacteria and bottling the wine under a nitrogen or carbon dioxide "blanket" to eliminate exposure to oxygen can produce a wine that doesn't require added sulfites, but these techniques will add to the cost and may not be entirely effective.
Winemakers typically add more sulfites to white wines than to red wines. The average concentration of sulfites in white wine is 70 ppm, as opposed to 50 for reds -- meaning that people who have some sort of reaction to red wines but not to white wines probably aren't allergic to sulfites. This is especially true if they can eat dried fruit without a reaction, since much of the dried fruit on the market is treated with a lot more sulfites than most wines.
So what causes the red wine reaction? Some people may be sensitive to the tannins in red wine, but chocolate, coffee, and tea also contain tannins - if people can consume them without a problem, then it's not the tannins. There is anecdotal evidence that drinking red wines with food can reduce the symptoms, or that taking an anti-inflammatory before drinking red wine can also help. But truth be told, there hasn't been any real scientific inquiry about red wine reactions, especially compared to the research on health benefits. Like the old joke - a man goes to the doctor and says "My leg hurts when I do this," and the doctor says, "So stop doing it!" - it's easier to avoid the problem than figure out what causes it. We feel for you, and not just because we sell wine: it's sad to think that even one glass of something that gives us such pleasure can send some people to bed clutching their heads in pain. After all, if you're going to be sick from drinking wine, you might as well have enough to enjoy it first!
Luckily, there are some foods that go well with both white and red wines, so everyone can have something good to drink.
(snippage for recipe info on salmon pie and other things in this weeks newsletter)
Bon Appetit!
Dare & Tom
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-26 04:52 pm (UTC)now i'm almost wondering then if it isn't something in the fertilizer the west coast uses...
Thank you!
Date: 2009-02-26 08:17 pm (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2009-02-27 03:59 am (UTC)