Sulphites in wine: real problem or pure perception?

Since, due to the reasons known to everybody, I miss from wine events and various tastings, but every time I have participated, one of the most popular and recurring topics at the counters of taste was undoubtedly that of the sulphites.

A topic that has long been on the center of the enoic debate (above all European), but which during any "sector" events (for example Vignaioli Naturali or Vinnatur) is able to reach unthinkable peaks. To the point that several times listening to debates and discussions almost surreal, I thinked that a lot of people, rather than enjoying wine and appreciating (or not) its qualities, were more interested in knowing the exact quantity of sulfur present in the labels they drank.

Okay, I like to joke and laugh at certain attitudes near to human psychiatry, but returning serious and above all before taking a position on the matter, I think it is important to clarify the subject.

Also because if you don’t focus on the issue, you end up making it an ideological issue, running the risk of assuming “Taliban” attitudes which - as usual - lead nowhere.

Coming to us then, WHAT ARE THE SULPHITES, AND WHY DO WE FIND THEM INTO THE WINE?

They are a heterogeneous group of compounds, used in the food sector in order to counteract the oxidation of foods and prevent unwanted microbial development. In the presence of a certain concentration (higher than 10mg / liter) it is mandatory to report its use on the label, using the famous expression "contains sulphites".

From what has been said, it’s therefore clear that these compounds, in addition to being present in "bottled" wine, are therefore present in more or less every packaged food product.

In wine - which already contains "natural" sulphites induced by alcoholic fermentation - sulfur dioxide is used almost exclusively, with the aim of blocking unwanted fermentations and oxidation reactions, and therefore to better stabilize it and make marketing safe.

Wanting to give some numbers in this regard, the quantity of sulphites present in "industrial" wines varies between 30 and 250mg/liter, usually being lower in the red wines (because the polyphenols and tannins present in skins give already a natural anti-oxidant action), increasing a little more for white wines and ending up reaching the highest values for sweet wines and sparkling wines.

However – on the basis of scientific studies – these quantities aren’t able to cause major problems on our body (unless there’s someone of you who is used to drinking a bottle of Sauternes a day...), if not canonical “hangover” or any collateral effects that can occur on asthmatics people.

But then, if sulphites are present in thousands of products that we eat every day, and if their quantities, although not negligible, are not such as to generate health problems (or at least , if there were any effects, they would still be too lower than those produced by the alcohol), WHY DO WE TALK ABOUT IT AS A CENTRAL THEME OF THE ENOIC WORLD?

The reason is almost exclusively of an ethical nature, and is linked to the flourishing, especially in recent years, of various groups of producers who - under various acronyms refer to a way of understanding wine almost archaic, free from chemistry and any form of treatment, in the vineyard as well as in the cellar.

This ethical / philosophical vision - which has its common roots in the principles of biodynamics - is today "felt" almost exclusively in Europe (especially in Italy and France), while in the rest of the world is certainly less considered.

For my part, while appreciating a lot the small producers and their working methods, so to speak "artisanal", I really find it hard to follow certain ideological drifts, not because I’m contrary to a more natural way of understanding wine, but because I consider them marginal within a much broader and more important discourse, of which unfortunately we speak less: THE DEFENSE AND THE PRESERVATION OF THE TERROIR AND OF THE TRADITIONS THAT IT EXPRESSES.

To give an example, it is more important if“winemaker X” uses a certain amount of sulfur dioxide in the wines he bottles or that in some wine areas a shocking use of pesticides is made, or that the Langa area is been converted to monoculture, including vineyards in the valley floor, in places where the elderly would not have planted even a hazelnut grove?

It would therefore be time that - instead to argue for details (and the speech of sulphites is one of them), wine experts and above all enthusiasts join us all, demanding that we stop deleting - in the name of profit - places and traditions of our oenology.

We would probably do a better service to ourselves, to our history, to our past but above all to future generations.